Head of Category

Kramp is Europe’s number one agricultural wholesaler and they keep growing fast. The company is in the process of streamlining its e-commerce strategy, as part of a company-wide digital transformation. The Head of Category will lead a team of product managers in professionalizing the online strategy for two of Kramp’s six main product groups.

About Kramp

Kramp Group is Europe’s largest agricultural wholesaler. They offer more than 500,000 different spare parts and accessories for the sectors Agriculture, Forest & Grass Care, and Construction. Kramp is well-known for their exceptional service, next-day delivery on thousands of items, and excellent value for money. This is what makes them the ultimate one-stop shop for every agricultural dealer.

But Kramp is much more than a parts supplier. They consistently improve their services to be as efficient and straightforward as possible. By focusing on digitization, e-commerce, and innovation, they continue to maintain their leading role in the market and stay ahead of competitors.

“Kramp still feels like the start-up we were over seventy years ago. We have the spirit of a family business and the international success of a large multinational.” – Eddie Perdok, CEO of KRAMP

Each year, Kramp continues to achieve strong growth. With headquarters in The Netherlands, they also have eleven distribution centers, twenty-four sales offices, more than 3,500 employees and over one billion euros in revenue. As a leading player in their market – and supported by investor NPM Capital – Kramp is perfectly positioned to achieve their significant growth plans.

With its digital transformation, Kramp is ramping up for the future and putting ecommerce at the center of its sales strategy. A new Director of Product Management joined last year in order to create a brandnew, digital-first product strategy. The Head of Category will support the Director of Product Management by taking ownership of two of Kramp’s core product groups and implementing a best practice, data-driven way of working.

Job description: Head of Category

The Head of Category will report to the Director Product Manager and lead a team of seven product managers, located throughout Europe. The Head of Category  oversees the global assortment for the relevant product categories and leads the implementation of the assortment strategy and related category plans. Furthermore, the Head of Category acts as a liaison between ecommerce, sales, procurement, marketing, finance, and operations.

Kramp’s overall assortment consists of more than 500,000 products. Customers can find anything and everything they might need in Kramp’s webshop, but they may have trouble selecting the right option quickly. Kramp’s new product strategy aims to move away from this vast assortment and toward a demand-driven selection of core products within well-structured price tiers. For this, the team needs to adopt a data-driven mindset, and the Head of Category is of great importance in helping the organization achieve this.

Some of the questions that the Head of Category will take ownership of are: Where in the online customer journey does Kramp currently lose customers? Where does the assortment become confusing rather than enticing? Which products cannibalize on each other and should therefore be eliminated or placed more prominently, to drive growth? What products are our customers looking for that we do no not yet have in our assortment? The Head of Category will set up an Assortment Center of Excellence, making assortment-, market-, and competitive analyses key components of the team’s way of working.

“Our product strategy is currently mainly supplier driven. From a category perspective, we don’t yet think in terms of limitations and opportunity costs. There is a lot to be gained from selecting assortments more strategically, in a more structured manner and more demand-driven.” – Ineke de Moor, Director of Product Management at Kramp

The Head of Category takes a leading role in implementing a data-driven category strategy for the relevant product groups and coaches the team in adopting the necessary skills to drive a successful product strategy. Solid experience in category management and ecommerce will help the Head of Category be successful in this role. The Head of Category has affinity with the relevant products and sectors and shows a track record of analytical and commercial accomplishments. Strong team management experience is required in this role, as the Head of Category will lead the (partly remote) team along the digital transformation.

There is a lot of opportunity for implementing a more structured, best-practice approach to the online category strategy. Therefore, this role is great for someone who is looking to take initiative and have immediate impact.

Interested?

Kramp is working with Top of Minds to fill this vacancy.
To express your interest, please contact Max Tasseron at max.tasseron@topofminds.com.