Category Buyer | Established Wholesale Distributor | West London Full Time

Procurement Heads is working with an established wholesale distributor that manufactures its own unique product range that has built the company a strong reputation in their market.

As a Category Buyer, you will be responsible for delivering a market leading range of products. Through exceptional knowledge of what the customer wants you will build product ranges that give the business a clear differentiation from any competition, achieving a growth in sales, market share and brand strength.

You will be responsible for identifying and developing new supplier relationships in order to improve company profitability. As a creative thinker, you will work alongside suppliers to develop exclusive and innovative products – so maintaining a strong relationship with suppliers is critical to the role.

As the Category Buyer, your roles and responsibilities will include:

• Implementing the buying strategy and direction for the business and commercial tea
• Finding new products in the market place, reviewing existing lines performance and completing quarterly range reviews
• Developing and maintaining continuous engagement with all suppliers, making sure performance and customer service are key considerations
• Being fully accountable for margin achievement through the retail pricing of products
• Working with the marketing team to create a robust, clear promotional calendar to support seasonal trends and key trading periods
• Developing own brand products in conjunction with the new product development team in line with the overall company business strategy
• Responsible for obtaining market insight and competitor intelligence on existing and forthcoming products to support the company growth strategy
• Negotiating and managing pricing, rebates and other trading terms to drive the high performance of suppliers and ensure budgets, sales and margins are achieved
• Identifying opportunities to improve margin by identifying new sources of supply from either the existing approved supply base or where necessary opening up new sources, completing the vendor due diligence process where necessary
• Conducting monthly competitor analysis, review marketing intelligence and competitor’s marketing activity regarding range, pricing and propositions to ensure competitive strength
• Aligning with all other team members and customer facing functions including merchandising, new product development, supply chain, stock control, customer loyalty, sales administration etc. and be the focal point defining the product portfolio and communicating the range strategy

The ideal profile for this role:

• Previous product category management & buying experience
• Ideally a degree or equivalent qualification and proven experience within a Buying or Category Management environment (ideally 1-3 years)
• Commerciality – with the ability to build long term strategic plans to benefit the business.
• Have great interpersonal skills, as you’ll be required to influence at senior level internally and externally
• Experience of Far East direct sourcing, and UK supplier management.
• Strong negotiation skills, using appropriate techniques to persuad others to gain mutual agreements
• Analytical skills to monitor and measure sales results, and adjust product ranges to ensure sales targets and margins are achieved
• Excellent working knowledge of Word, PowerPoint and Excel
• Numerate with experience of managing costs and budgets
• Extremely high attention to detail

If you are a match for this role, please do apply with an updated CV highlighting your relevant experience or call Paul on 01962 869838 to