Kevin Nzioka

Lead category management teams across Copia East Africa with the aim of driving profitable growth, across all categories.

I also oversee the Replenishment Team, Imports/Exports Team and the None-Trade Category that manages delivery of critical none-trade/OPEX and CAPEX goods and services, across the markets.

Develop, own, track and deliver annual, quarterly and monthly category budgets and models (Revenue, Margin and Mix). Cascade and manage budget performance through strategic OKR's to all direct reports and teams.

Deliver results at a strategic level by operationalizing category strategic planograms in terms of growing market share, promotions, supplier support, competition offers and opportunities, supply side dynamics, growth, trends and innovations.

Stakeholder management: Engaging stakeholders in the before, during, and after stages of strategy development and execution. Senior Management Team (Buy-In and Reporting), Sales (Sales execution), Marketing (Customer insights, promotions, merchandising), Supply Chain (Warehousing, Production, Order Fulfillment), Finance (Budgets, Reporting, working capital management), Technology (Systems), Analytics (Forecasts, Projections, Pricing), HR (People).

Measure supplier performance and drive profitable scale through strategic Joint Business Plans (JBP) and effective supplier relationship management. Execute the JBP's in collaboration with sales, marketing, supply chain and finance, to scale both front and back margin growth. This ultimately ensures budget adherence for key metrics (Product Margin, Revenue, Mix, Unit Economics, Contribution Margin 1 and 2 etc).

Manage demand planning and order fulfillment (OTIF & Case Fill Rate) through delivering best in class efficiencies across the business and suppliers. I also drive cost optimization through the entire P2P (Procure to Pay) process activities to manage our unit economics and drive OPEX adherence.

Risk Management: Managing financial, ethical, environmental and delivery risk assessment on new and existing suppliers; Designing revised business structures or terms of trade (JBP's and framework contracts);Identifying suppliers at risk by comparing their performance to plan, service level indicators, macro-economic factors or other suppliers; Monitoring the performance of those stressed suppliers and developing strategies to either improve their performance or switch supply;Designing contingency plans to address the risk of critical supplier's via default / insolvency/SC interruptions etc.

People Management: Motivating employees to be high achievers in relation to the long and short term Copia objectives (OKR's); Developing employee skills and performance through training and coaching;Hiring, training, and growing new employees in line with the Copia Way Culture. Providing constant feedback on an employee’s performance through one on one's, and addressing performance issues.

Lead the procurement teams across East Africa in the delivery of quality goods and services, across thirteen key categories.

Create annual, semi-annual, and monthly category budgets, forecasts and targets.

Own, develop and execute strategies and models that maximise product margins for all products/categories, whilst driving revenue and product mix change.

Manage product pricing to ensure competitiveness through understanding price elasticity, market pricing, supplier pricing and external macro-economic factors.

Ensure product availability and customer satisfaction by driving demand planning and order fulfillment to meet sales. Own the Net Promoter Score (NPS) metrics focusing on Case Fill Rate and OTIF.

Develop category selling strategies based on the company’s competitive and success budget elements. ( Pricing, Merchandising, Sales, Product Management, Marketing)

Manage partnerships, negotiations and determine new supplier contractual terms.

• Managing budget development and revenue for the categories and creating forecasts for product demand to ensure sustainability of inventory.
• Developing strong working relationships with sales, marketing, finance and supply chain teams including pricing, merchandising, promotions and working capital management.
• Develop supply management strategies by which vendors are evaluated, selected and managed in accordance with established guidelines and best practices (RFI/RFP, VMI, scorecards, performance metrics, etc.).
• Analyzing data or insights to determine industry and consumer trends regarding the products and categories.
• Creating and developing a strategic long term plan for the development of the category
• Provide leadership in category ranging, pricing, merchandising and promotions across all Copia sales channels.
• Determine and recommend alternate supply strategies to create cost savings and/or supply support solutions.