Procurement Manager in Trowbridge

Are you a procurement professional with experience of food manufacturing supply chain and a passion for great quality ingredients? The Procurement Manager ensures apetito has a clear strategy for purchasing raw materials and packaging. You will be responsible for managing a spend of approximately £13m per annum across key food categories within a fast-paced, high-volume manufacturing environment.

You will have solid experience of both the purchasing process (tender, negotiation and award) and strategic sourcing (market data, supply chain, cost control). You will have a passion for purchasing and aspire to be part of an agile business where we can support your career development. To be a success, you'll have a talent for negotiation with exceptional networking and communication skills. Most importantly, you are able to work on your own initiative as well as being an integral part of a high-performing team.

This role will require some travel, primarily to UK suppliers; however, this may be extended toward both European and international travel as required. A typical amount could be 5 days travel per month. This role is based at our UK Head Office in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. Once you’re trained and able to work independently, you’ll have the option to work up to 2 days a week from home (depending on operational commitments).

Who we are: apetito is the UK’s leading food supplier to the health and social care sectors serving more than 1,300 care homes, health care and education settings. Our meals are expertly crafted by our dieticians and chefs, and then frozen to lock in the goodness. Wiltshire Farm Foods, our sister company, is the UK’s largest ready meal supplier cooking and delivering over 330 different delicious frozen ready meals across the UK.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and deliver category strategies aligned to business objectives, focused on cost, service, quality, ethical sourcing and innovation.
• Lead on supplier selection, negotiation and contract management across your categories.
• Drive continuous improvement in supplier performance ensuring delivery against KPI's including OTIF, quality and cost.
• Provide regular market analysis and cost benchmarking to support decision making and risk management.
• Support development and innovation teams by sourcing new ingredients.
• Deliver forecasting and budgeting inputs including volume and pricing assumptions.
• Act as a key supplier relationship owner and escalation.
• Compliance to Procurement policies and procedures.

Qualifications/Personal Qualities:

Essential:

• Proven procurement experience, ideally in a food manufacturing environment.
• Strong negotiation and supplier management skills.
• Experience of delivering tangible cost savings and managing risk.
• Ability to interpret market data and develop concise category strategies.
• Impactful and adaptable negotiator capable of influencing stakeholders and decision makers.
• Working knowledge of food safety, quality and supply chain compliance.
• An advocate for sustainable sourcing practices.
• Effective and adaptable communicator.
• Strong interpersonal and relationship building skills.
• Resilient and persistent.
• Act at pace and meet deadlines.
• Strong organisation skills - capable of initiating, prioritising and managing several projects simultaneously.

Desirable:

• Ability to use SAP effectively.
• Full UK driving Licence.
• Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) membership or additional relevant postgraduate qualification.

Company Benefits:

• Competitive salary – accredited Living Wage employer.
• 25 days holiday per year, plus bank holidays.
• Option to purchase up to 5 additional days holiday per year.
• Discretionary annual bonus scheme.
• Pension scheme - employer matched contributions up to 4%.
• Life assurance scheme worth at least 1x annual salary.
• Subsidised canteen.
• Free parking.
• Free turkey or voucher at Christmas.
• apetito perks scheme including salary sacrifice options and retail discounts.

Our Values:

As a family-owned business, we take great pride in being a company that makes a real difference and is dedicated to creating outstanding meals to be proud of. We develop a range of products designed to enhance health and well-being for all our customers. We are driven by a passion for service and dedicated to feeding some of the UK’s most vulnerable people. We proudly support British food and farming, focusing on using the best ethical and sustainable produce in alignment with our goal to reach Net Zero by 2040. Our ethical standards are recognised by the ETI and we are an accredited Living Wage employer. We embrace inclusion, empowering individuals from diverse backgrounds. Our commitment to making a real difference extends to customers, communities, and staff and we're on a mission to build an inclusive workplace where everyone reaches their full potential.