Wild Fork · 22 hours ago
REGIONAL MERCHANT
Toronto, CA, United States
Full-time
Onsite
Senior Level
5+ years expWild Fork is seeking a Regional Merchant for Canada to drive sales and margin growth by managing the Canadian product portfolio. The role involves developing vendor relationships, establishing pricing strategies, and ensuring product availability while collaborating with various teams to meet consumer needs.
Retail
Responsibilities
On-the-ground support to close key product gaps via sourcing, development, and production coordination
Local presence to accelerate vendor engagement, sampling, and quality control
Real-time competitive analysis with weekly reporting to enable rapid response to market shifts
Assortment Strategy: Define portfolio architecture (core, seasonal, innovation, local relevance); set role of brands/tiers and private label to drive sales and margin
Vendor Strategy & Negotiation: Build a robust Canadian/US/international vendor base; negotiate cost, terms, vendor-funded promotions/rebates, and service levels aligned to margin goals
Pricing & Promotion: Establish competitive pricing strategy and guardrails; manage price index targets; optimize promotional calendars for sales lift and ROI
Category Plans: Create annual and quarterly category plans with targets for sales, margin, and productivity; track performance and course-correct
Innovation & Commercialization: Prioritize pipeline through stage gates; run tests/learning sprints; partner with Production/QA to deliver spec-accurate launches that meet velocity and margin thresholds
Insights & Analytics: Use market scans, competitive reviews, and shopper data to inform category, pricing, and promotion decisions; translate insights into action
Item Lifecycle Management: Own SKU setup, product specifications, labels, and packaging inventory for accuracy and availability
Cost & Spec Integrity: Maintain up-to-date costs; manage cost changes; ensure strict spec adherence with internal production and 3rd-party processors
Demand & Inventory: Provide forecasts and inputs to planning; support allocation, replenishment, and OOS reduction actions across 4 (and growing) Canadian stores
Space & Merchandising: Support space planning and planograms; ensure assortments are merchandised for conversion and basket growth
Regulatory & Quality: Partner with QA/Regulatory to meet Canadian food/labeling requirements and internal standards
Performance Reporting: Maintain category dashboards (weekly/monthly) covering sales, margin, price index, promo ROI, inventory health, and vendor OTIF
Marketing: Align on brand and promotional plans, storytelling, and content that drive traffic and conversion in Canada
Operations/Stores: Gather field feedback; support planogram execution and promotional readiness; address product issues quickly
Supply Chain & Logistics: Coordinate to protect availability, freshness, fill rates, and costs (including inbound, DC, and store-level execution)
Production/QA: Co-own spec accuracy, packaging readiness, and change control to safeguard quality and margin
Finance & IT: Align on pricing, item master integrity, P&L views, reporting automation, and performance governance
Qualification
Required
5+ years in Category Management/Merchandising in Food Retail or Foodservice (grocery preferred)
Proven track record in pricing strategy, cost modeling, vendor negotiation, and category P&L ownership
Strong analytics in Excel/Google Sheets/Smartsheet; familiarity with BI/visualization tools preferred
Experience with space planning/planogram tools and item lifecycle management (specs, labels, packaging)
Working knowledge of Canadian retail market dynamics and food regulatory environment
Lean/Continuous Improvement exposure; Lean Six Sigma training/Black Belt is an asset
Makes sound, data-informed tradeoffs that balance growth and margin
Builds trust across functions and vendors; navigates boundaries to deliver outcomes
Bias to action; sets clear targets; course-corrects with urgency in a dynamic environment
Anticipates Canadian consumer needs; turns insights into winning assortments and experiences
Comfortable with start-up pace; iterates quickly through tests and learning sprints
Clear, persuasive communicator; secures value through principled negotiations
Acts consistently with Wild Fork values and ethics; champions the company's best interest
Company
Wild Fork
Our purpose: Nourishing a Better Life. Our vision is clear: To be the first option in Meat & Seafood close to you.
501-1000 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageLeadership Team
Olga Gonzalez, MBA
CEO and President WildFork USA
Edward Deutscher
Global Head of Innovation Technology / CTO
Company data provided by crunchbase