Customer Category Controller - Ice Cream

We are looking for a strategic and experienced Customer Category Controller to drive growth across Ferrero’s chilled and frozen categories, including Chilled Desserts, Ice Cream and Frozen Bakery. Covering the UK and Ireland, this role spans grocery, wholesale and out-of-home channels, requiring both a strong strategic mindset and the ability to define channel-led approaches.

You will act as a trusted advisor to customers and an influential partner internally, providing objective, insight-led category guidance that supports both category and brand growth. Working closely with Customer Category, Trade Marketing, Sales and Area teams, you will play a pivotal role in shaping our category strategy and strengthening our customer partnerships.

This role is central to unlocking growth through improved distribution, enhanced shelf presence and stronger customer collaboration, while leading key initiatives such as range reviews and in-store category transformations.

You will lead the development of deep category, shopper and consumer insight, translating complex data into clear, actionable recommendations that drive performance across customers and the wider market. This includes continuously monitoring category trends, identifying risks and opportunities, and evolving reporting to support decision-making.

You will build and maintain strong, strategic relationships with key grocery, wholesale and OOH customers, acting as a credible and independent partner to drive category growth. Through day-to-day engagement and key moments such as range reviews, you will deliver compelling category stories and ensure alignment across internal teams, while representing the voice of the customer within Ferrero.

A key part of the role is shaping category strategy and execution. You will lead and support range reviews, identify opportunities to improve distribution and shelf share, and develop joint business plans with customers. You will influence innovation and new product development by leveraging insight, while identifying opportunities to create new category segments and drive future growth.

You will also champion point-of-purchase vision and merchandising standards, leading major in-store changes that enhance the shopper experience and strengthen category performance. Alongside this, you will contribute to building a high-performing team environment, supporting capability development and driving strong collaboration across functions.

You bring strong FMCG experience, ideally within frozen or chilled categories, along with a proven ability to influence stakeholders and build lasting customer relationships. You are highly analytical, with the ability to interpret data from sources such as Nielsen, Circana or Kantar, and translate it into compelling, insight-led stories that drive action.

You are comfortable operating in a fast-paced, evolving environment, balancing multiple priorities while maintaining a clear strategic focus. Your strong communication and influencing skills enable you to work effectively across cross-functional teams and engage senior stakeholders with confidence.

You are proficient in Microsoft Excel and bring a structured, data-driven approach to problem solving, combined with strong storytelling capability. Experience in new product development, innovation pipelines or bringing brands to market would be advantageous.

Above all, you are collaborative, adaptable and commercially driven, with a genuine passion for category growth and delivering impactful results for both customers and the business.

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Ferrero began its journey in the small town of Alba in Piedmont, Italy, in 1946. Today, it is one of the world’s largest sweet-packaged food companies, with many iconic brands sold in countries all over the world. Find out more about Ferrero at ferrero.com.

Ferrero is committed to building a diverse and inclusive culture in which all employees feel welcomed and appreciated and have the same opportunities. We believe all our people are equally talented in their own way. In nurturing the curiosity and natural abilities of our employees, we provide them, generation after generation, the means to succeed personally and professionally, enabling them to craft their journey at Ferrero. The diversity of our talents is what makes our work environment multicultural, innovative, and highly rewarding.
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