Buyer - Hybrid - food manufacturing in Manchester

This role is working for a successful BRC AA Graded food manufacturer. The company produces high-quality food products and exceptional service - enabling their food manufacturing customers to innovate and increase productivity without compromising on quality.

The purpose of your role will be a commercially astute Buyer responsible for managing both direct and indirect procurement across food manufacturing sites. You will define category strategies, secure reliable supply, and work closely with Operations, NPD, Technical and Finance to deliver quality, value and service. This is a hands-on role suited to someone confident, assertive and skilled in negotiation, supplier partnership building and driving continuous improvement.

Key tasks

• Be responsible for developing and delivering category strategies across key spend areas, negotiating pricing and terms, and securing year-on-year savings and value improvements. Manage supplier selection and onboarding, lead sourcing events and contract negotiations, and maintain strong supplier relationships to ensure reliable service, quality and risk control.
• Continually ensure materials are always available by analysing demand, coordinating with logistics and operations, and managing inventory to prevent shortages or excess, while reducing waste. Work closely with marketing, sales, NPD and commercial teams to ensure product choices, specifications, trials and new launches support promotional plans and overall business goals.
• Oversee compliance with food safety, ethical and sustainability standards, ensuring full traceability and maintaining relevant certifications such as BRCGS/retailer codes, HACCP/traceability, allergens. Monitor markets and cost drivers and support business continuity through dual sourcing, capacity checks and incident readiness.
• Use data to inform decisions by developing costed BOMs, KPI dashboards and monthly performance updates for senior leadership. You will also improve the procure-to-pay process through better compliance, cleaner data and accurate invoice matching.
• Continuously enhance procurement performance and support operational efficiency, commercial delivery and long-term value creation across the business.

About You

• The successful candidate shall have proven procurement experience in food manufacturing or FMCG, with strong negotiation, tendering and supplier management skills.
• Have a good understanding of food safety, quality and technical standards and are commercially sharp, confident with costed BOMs, TCO thinking and advanced Excel and ERP/MRP use.
• You ideally hold or are working toward CIPS and have a degree or equivalent experience. You are an effective cross-functional partner with strong stakeholder influence and the ability to present confidently to senior leadership.

The Buyer job (ref:8985) is paying £40,000 to £50,000 according to your experience.

The working hours are Monday to Friday usual office hours with 3 days a week expected on site and 2 days working remotely.

The site is in Greater Manchester and is commutable from Manchester, Bolton, Warrington, Preston, Ormskirk, Wigan, St Helens, Chorley and Bury, along with other areas of Lancashire and Merseyside.