Buyer - Essentials

Overview

Positioned within the commercial team, you will be right in the centre of a fast‑paced team, working hand in hand with the go to market team, building strong relationships with our supplier partners.

As a Category Buyer you will be accountable for all supplier negotiations in line with the category strategy.

You will select and negotiate product ranges and pricing, all terms and conditions, and all investments in our business and its activity.

You are accountable for ensuring cost pricing allows us to remain competitive for customers while maximising EBIT return and securing adequate differentiation against competitors.

Within our Essentials team, you will support our Senior Buyer across a wide range of exciting products including PC, Tablet, Apple, Imaging, Whites & TV Accessories as well as working on our growing range of Impulse product.

In this role you will interact with many major suppliers including Sandisk, Samsung, Logitech, HP, Microsoft, Duracell, Energizer, One For All and more.

You will need to have great relationship building skills, working closely with our supplier partners, the go to market team, Planning and Far East Sourcing team and use your influencing skills to secure support to drive the business forward.

Commercial acumen is a must as you will be required to support our analysis of trading performance, providing recommendations of actions to drive our business.

Our ideal candidate will be organised and self‑motivated in order to prioritise their work whilst having strong attention to detail to ensure everything is right first time.

Responsibilities

• Managing all category supplier relationships in line with the company DOA and pre‑determined annual timetable.
• Coaching and developing direct reports to deliver category targets and to ensure compliance with the Commercial critical path and processes.
• Providing and regularly reviewing team members’ objectives, priorities and performance via Personal Development Review and one‑to‑one sessions, supporting their professional and personal development.
• Handling all supplier negotiations in line with the category strategy.
• Selecting and negotiating product ranges and pricing, all terms and conditions, and all investments in our business and its activity.
• Ensuring cost pricing keeps the company competitive while maximising EBIT and securing adequate differentiation against competitors.
• Developing a sourcing strategy to bring customers the best ranges supported with availability while minimising NET cost of goods.
• Working with suppliers to develop an understanding of future technology roadmap, enabling the category to plan ahead for customer trend changes.
• Negotiating product ranges – cost pricing, additional terms, exclusivity, distribution, stock availability.
• Negotiating additional fixed and variable financial terms related to ranging, activity and performance to maximise EBIT across the category.
• Negotiating promotional funding support to drive sales while maintaining margin in line with financial objectives.
• Securing adequate product and promotional differentiation from competitors to support market share growth objectives.
• Pricing the product range in line with agreed category CPI targets.
• Working with the returns team to ensure adequate supplier returns agreements are in place contractually to meet customer service requirements and minimise cost exposure after sale.
• Collaborating with the category planner to secure supplier support to drive additional sales and margin where opportunity for upside exists, and to mitigate risks against committed financial objectives.
• Working with merchandising to ensure that forecasting is at the right level to maximise sales and stock turn.
• Using customer and market data provided by the go to market team to ensure correct ranges and promotional plans are in place to drive customers for life, improve market share and net profitability through development of exclusive products/plans where appropriate to address customer needs.
• Cooperating with the head of merchandising and central finance teams to ensure the claiming and tracking of income against trading account targets, ensuring all due supplier funding is claimed on time in line with contractual obligations.
• Remedying all supplier issues relating to cost price, product, stock, financial claims, contractual issues and other.
• Ensuring supplier contracts are completed in line with the company DOA and pre‑determined annual timetable.

Qualifications

• Buying experience working within a FMCG/Fashion or Hard Goods fast‑paced retailer.
• Negotiation skills and ability to manage all supplier partnerships.
• Good judgment and strong decision‑making skills to enable the right actions for the category.
• Excellent numerical and analytical skills to review data and provide recommendations / action plans to drive sales, profit and cash.
• Good planning, organisational and multitasking skills.
• Excellent inter‑personal and communication skills, capable of presenting to senior stakeholders as well as working cross‑functionally to achieve the desired results.
• Customer champion with excellent commercial awareness and understanding of customer needs.
• Good working knowledge of Share Point, Teams, Excel, Word and Power Point as well as MS Office workflow tools.
• Good presentation and speaking skills.
• Coaching/management experience.

Benefits

• 25 days of annual leave (plus bank holiday entitlement) and a competitive pension scheme.
• Private Medical Insurance.
• Life Assurance.
• Fantastic colleague discounts on Tech with Currys and i D Mobile.
• Hybrid working (with an expectation to meet in person 2‑4 times per month).
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