DENISA FATU-TONCU
Crowthorne,Berkshire
Summary
Fast-progressing Category Manager with experience across leading global FMCG organisations, driving category growth through data-led strategy, retailer influence and commercial insight. Combines category management, finance and data analytics experience across Danone and Procter & Gamble, with strong Power BI, Advanced Excel and Python capability. Proven impact identifying multimillion-pound range, distribution and promotional opportunities, influencing senior grocery partners and translating complex shopper, POS and financial data into clear strategic action. Recognised for building trusted retailer relationships, improving category performance and bringing a more technical and commercially rigorous perspective than a typical category management profile.
Overview
6
6
years of professional experience
4
4
years of post-secondary education
1
1
Certification
Work history
Category Manager
Danone
08.2024 - 04.2026
- Category Manager for Morrisons and Co-op, reporting to senior Category leadership. Responsible for delivering category growth through insight-led strategy, retailer engagement and commercial analysis across key product portfolios.
- Key Responsibilities:
- Lead category strategy development using shopper, consumer, POS and performance data to drive distribution, range, flow and promotional optimisation across major UK grocery retailers.
- Own end-to-end category performance for Morrisons and Co-op, delivering monthly reviews and forward-looking insight across range, occasions and On-the-Go opportunities.
- Provide category insight and recommendations to internal commercial teams and external retail partners, influencing range reviews, fixture strategy and growth plans.
- Build and maintain reporting tools and dashboards in Power BI to improve visibility of category performance and commercial opportunities.
- Work cross-functionally with Sales, Marketing, Finance and Supply Chain to support commercial planning and category initiatives.
- Key Achievements:
- Category growth: Identified and influenced £50m+ of range, flow and promotions opportunities across key grocery accounts.
- Retailer influence: Led senior-level range review and category strategy recommendations, securing new listings across priority Danone brands.
- Strategic partnership: Represented Danone as a strategic category partner in retailer strategy sessions, contributing to Fixture of the Future development and achieving #1 AGS score.
- Reporting capability: Developed data-led insight and Power BI outputs that improved speed, quality and clarity of commercial decision-making.
Category Executive
Danone
06.2023 - 07.2024
- Category Executive supporting retailer range reviews, category fundamentals and insight-led commercial planning across Danone grocery accounts.
- Key Responsibilities:
- Delivered best-in-class category fundamentals through range, shelving and space optimisation using POS data, shopper insight and planogram tools.
- Partnered with Account Managers on customer brand plan presentations, strengthening retailer relationships and joint business planning.
- Developed analytics tools and repeatable reporting to improve team capability, efficiency and decision-making quality.
- Key Achievements:
- Range reviews: Led retailer recommendation sessions, influencing decisions on distribution, space and flow aligned to Perfect Store principles.
- Insight and space planning: Turned shopper and performance data into practical shelf and assortment recommendations adopted in retailer discussions.
- Analytics capability: Embedded new data tools that improved visibility of opportunities and reduced manual reporting effort.
Growth Analyst
Procter & Gamble
06.2022 - 06.2023
- Growth Analyst supporting category growth, e-commerce acceleration and senior stakeholder reporting across key retailers.
- Key Responsibilities & Achievements:
- Growth analysis: Drove range review segmentation and departmental sell-out analysis, identifying £4m+ POS upside across key retailers.
- E-commerce: Accelerated online performance through targeted analysis and actionable growth recommendations.
- Reporting: Designed periodic and real-time reporting frameworks for senior stakeholders, improving visibility of growth opportunities and performance drivers.
Supply Chain Platform Transformation Project Manager
Procter & Gamble
11.2021 - 06.2022
- Project Manager supporting the transition of finance-related apps and transactions from SAP into S/4HANA.
- S/4HANA transition: Ensured seamless migration of finance-related applications and transactions into the new SAP environment.
- Risk management: Identified local risk areas, led testing and managed mitigation plans to protect business continuity.
- Leadership communication: Provided regular progress updates to senior leadership, translating technical project status into clear business actions.
Finance Analyst
Procter & Gamble
06.2020 - 11.2021
- Finance Analyst supporting Beauty Care brands, pricing, innovation and channel expansion.
- Financial analysis: Delivered competitor and channel analysis to support strategic decision-making across Beauty Care brands.
- Commercial support: Evaluated the financial impact of pricing and innovation initiatives to optimise profitability.
- Capability building: Supported e-commerce and discounter channel expansion through financial insight; trained and onboarded new team members on financial processes and systems.
Education
MSc - Information Management and Digital Business - Digital Innovation
Henley Business School
Reading 09.2021 - 09.2022
BSc (Hons) - Finance and Investment
Birmingham City University
Birmingham 09.2017 - 05.2020
Skills
- Category Strategy & Range Reviews Retailer Influence & Senior Stakeholder Management Power BI Dashboards Advanced Excel Python Foundations Shopper, POS & Customer Insight Space Planning & Planogram Tools Product Assortment Optimisation Commercial & Financial Analysis Cross-Functional Project Delivery S/4HANA Transformation Supplier & Retailer Collaboration
Certification
Introduction to Programming using Python | PRINCE2 Project Management Certification | CISI Operational Risk | CISI UK Financial Regulation | CISI International Introduction to Investment | Google Digital Garage - Fundamentals of Digital Marketing
CERTIFICATIONS & LANGUAGES
English (fluent), Romanian (native).
Timeline
Category Manager
Danone
08.2024 - 04.2026
Category Executive
Danone
06.2023 - 07.2024
Growth Analyst
Procter & Gamble
06.2022 - 06.2023
Supply Chain Platform Transformation Project Manager
Procter & Gamble
11.2021 - 06.2022
MSc - Information Management and Digital Business - Digital Innovation
Henley Business School
09.2021 - 09.2022
Finance Analyst
Procter & Gamble
06.2020 - 11.2021
BSc (Hons) - Finance and Investment
Birmingham City University
09.2017 - 05.2020