Buyer in Slough

One of our clients are looking for a Fish & Seafood Buyer to join their expanding team.

Overall Purpose of the Role

• As the buyer for Fish & Seafood, you will support and develop the end-to-end procurement process for this category.
• You will be responsible for planning, negotiating and executing contract renewals as well as managing supplier relationships.
• Commercially you will be expected to support our overarching company strategy to drive volume growth, negotiate sustainable terms & provide value and benefit to our company Clients and GPO’s.
• You will be key to supporting our CSR commitments, following our sourcing standards during the procurement process.
• You will engage with our culinary teams and development chefs to support their client’s food strategies by providing products to meet their requirements.

Key Responsibilities

• You will support the Proteins Category Manager to develop and execute a long-term category strategy to deliver sustainable improvements in terms of cost, quality, service and innovation, in collaboration with the company procurement team & other relevant business stakeholders.
• Identifying potential suppliers, visiting, and meeting existing suppliers, building, and maintaining relationships.
• You will understand key cost drivers, industry trends and standard methodologies to design/implement the category strategy for the fish & seafood category.
• Develop and maintain long-term pricing mechanisms across the fish & seafood supply base to drive sustainable competitive advantage.
• You will support our supply chain team to ensure on-time direct supply and supply via distributor aligned to SLA’s.
• Ensure your product range is compliant with food safety regulations & CSR requirements, ensuring high quality standards always.
• You will be accountable for your category spend.
• Evaluating bids with the companies sourcing team and making recommendations based on commercial, technical, supply and quality requirements, using your category expertise and knowledge.
• You will communicate industry trends across the business.
• Regularly review supplier performance to support category growth.
• Manage category related queries from internal and external stakeholders.
• Support our sales and bid teams with content.

Candidate Profile

• Results Oriented – comfortable delivering against bold and stretching targets.
• Some experience in procurement/sourcing.
• Has the technical skill combined with enough gravitas to become recognised as a subject matter expert.
• Competent with procurement systems, ideally having used these in current/previous employment.
• Demonstrated ability to develop credible business relationships.

Ideal skills and experience required

• Strong decision maker, with good commercial acumen who is comfortable working under pressure.
• Effective interpersonal skills – excellent negotiator and strong communication and influencing skills.
• Ability to influence - not afraid to challenge across all levels of seniority.
• Strong communication skills – able to communicate concisely and steer conversation towards decisions needed.
• Strong analytical skills with advanced knowledge of Excel.
• Proven ability to reduce costs against tough market conditions.
• Problem solving – ability to work independently to solve challenging problems.
• Confident presenter.
• Evidence of an ability to work cross-functionally.
• Ambitious high performer with enthusiasm, energy, passion and resilience.
• High sensitivity to deadlines and providing information in a timely manner.

For more information email nick on