Assistant Category Manager

Assistant Category Manager

About us

At Halfords, our mission is to inspire and support a lifetime of motoring and cycling. As a specialist retailer, we lead the market through customer-driven innovation and a distinct product range. We are dedicated to providing our customers with an integrated, unique, and convenient service experience—from e-bike and electric vehicle servicing to on-demand solutions. Our commitment is to foster customer loyalty by offering compelling reasons to keep coming back to our stores, ensuring a lifetime of motoring and cycling enjoyment.

The teams at our Redditch Support Centre work with every other area of our business, putting them at the heart of the action and playing a key role in our success and growth. Everyone brings their individual knowledge and experience to work every day, working as one team to keep things moving smoothly.

If you’re willing to get stuck in, you’ll love it here too. So put yourself at the heart of a dynamic, fast-paced working environment where expertise and focus take people far.

About the role

Join Halfords at an exciting time of transformation and growth as we set our sights on Autocentre growth within the next three years. As a key member of our dynamic commercial team, you'll play a crucial role in supporting the delivery of our ambitious strategic plans. Reporting directly to the Category Manager, you’ll work at the heart of a fast-paced and forward-thinking business, helping shape and execute category plans that directly impact our growth and profitability.

In this role, you'll become a trusted expert for our nationwide garage network, offering vital support and insight into your product categories. Your ability to combine commercial acumen with a deep understanding of market trends will drive smarter decision-making and performance improvement. If you're passionate about automotive innovation, thrive in a collaborative environment, and want to be part of a business on the rise, we’d love to hear from you.

Key responsibilities

• Play a hands-on role in shaping our category plans, working closely with the Category Trading Manager to bring bold ideas to life.
• Keep the engine running smoothly by managing supplier funding and maintaining accurate, up-to-date records.
• Help bring our promotions to market, teaming up with marketing to deliver campaigns that drive results.
• Dive into sales insights and turn numbers into action that boosts performance across the board.
• Collaborate across the business to make sure great plans don’t just exist on paper—they happen in real life.
• Spot underperforming Centres and help turn things around with smart, tailored strategies.
• Keep a close eye on the competition and use what you learn to sharpen our edge.
• Take part in regular product reviews to make sure we’re offering what our customers really want.
• Influence what we buy and how we buy it, improving our product mix and brand line-up for better margins.
• Be on the lookout for new products and services that can make a difference—and lead the charge in launching them.
• Make sure suppliers are delivering the right products at the right prices, every time.
• Help roll out trading agreements that reflect our values, from CSR to ethical sourcing.
• Keep service standards high by holding suppliers to account and addressing any dips in performance.
• Negotiate smart rebate deals and steer spending to get the most from supplier partnerships.
• Support our Centres with category queries and uncover new ways they can buy smarter and sell better.
• Build strong relationships inside and outside the business, ensuring category plans are well-informed and widely supported.

About you

• Experience working in a commercial, category, or buying team.
• Strong customer focus with the ability to identify and respond to customer needs.
• Demonstrates solid commercial awareness and understanding of business drivers.
• Confident analysing large datasets and making insight-led, fact-based decisions.
• Self-starter with the initiative to identify solutions and drive improvements.
• Comfortable collaborating across teams and engaging stakeholders at all levels.
• Positive attitude with a proactive, can-do approach and a drive to deliver results.

Reward & benefits

• A fair and competitive salary evaluated against market data, annual discretionary bonus scheme, pension, life assurance, 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays and enhanced family leave.
• Commitment and dedication to your ongoing personal and professional development. We help you to own and grow your potential so you can be at your best in your current role and to support your future career aspirations.
• We offer hybrid working in our Support Centre, you will be based at our Support Centre 3 days a week with an optional 2 days working from home.
• You will have access to a wealth of employee discounts across the Halfords suite of products and services.
• Wellbeing and inclusion are at the heart of our colleague experience. We offer resources and ongoing support to enhance your wellbeing at work and active Colleague Networks supporting inclusion initiatives across Halfords.

Not sure you meet all the criteria? We'd encourage you to take the wheel and apply anyway! At Halfords we are committed to creating an inclusive workplace for our colleagues. We're an equal opportunities employer and proud to welcome applications from all backgrounds and embrace diversity within our one Halfords Family.

At Halfords, we operate a hybrid working policy with 3 days per week on-site at our Support Centre in Redditch Worcestershire.