Buyer & Merchandiser

A successful and market-leading client of ours is looking to appoint a Buyer & Merchandiser to lead a key sector within a busy Purchasing team, incrementally increasing the sales and profitability of the business unit. You would be tasked with building internal relationships to help integrate Purchasing into the wider business and to develop new and existing supplier relationships.

You will ideally have experience of negotiating with suppliers over the phone and face to face as well as stock control and ongoing supplier management and there would also be occasional travel to suppliers, trade shows and the like. You must also be a confident systems user, with Excel of particular importance. Retail and/or tangible product experience would be a distinct advantage.

The role reports to the Finance Director and while it is only a relatively small Purchasing team, the business sees this as an opportunity for the right candidate to progress into a bigger role in the future. You would have two dotted line reports, and must be comfortable managing people. You would be incentivised by way of comission, based on defined buying and cost saving ativity.

The Client: A well-established yet growing market leader, they are one of the most well-known businesses in their sector and have a fantastic reputation for continued growth and development of their staff and a genuine "credit where credit’s due" attitude.

After investing heavily over the last 24 months, they are in a prime position to move forward and need a driven, enthusiastic candidate to help reach and exceed their goals.

Job Scope: Leading the Buying and Merchandising activity for one of the two key sectors within the business, and having an important role in the leadership and direction of the overall Purchasing function.

You would use your research skills and networking to find new products, new suppliers and ensure the correct balance of quality, timely supply and price. You would work closely with Sales & Marketing and the Warehouse team to ensure stock is coded correctly, levels are correctly maintained, and promotions are planned in advance.

The role has a lot of variety and the successful candidate will need be able to cope with dealing with a number of different tasks simultaneously while maintaining a very focussed, clear and straightforward work methodology.

The role could grow in scope over time and would suit someone who is prepared to work hard for rewards in the future or simply someone who wants to have a solid, stable role.

Key Responsibilities:

• Continually review existing suppliers in all key performance areas
• Stock control including merchandising activity to clear certain items/lines
• Reporting on margin, turnover and stock with supporting analysis
• Involve the team to ensure all administration is up to date
• Constantly striving to reduce company expenditure
• Supplier meetings and negotiation
• Logging all customer communication
• Developing strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders alike
• Project work initially to improve buying processes and procedures

Experience and personal attributes required:

• Outstanding communication and relationship building skills
• Direct Buying & Merchandising experience, ideally with tangible products
• Good level of computer literacy (particularly Excel and SQL)
• Excellent negotiation skills
• Ability to present, both internally and externally
• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Ability to use Excel and SQL to produce reports