Buyer in Windermere

Hybrid (Minimum 3 days per week at Head Office, Windermere) Permanent - Full-time - 39 hours per week

As a Buyer at Lakeland, your primary focus will be to drive departmental sales and margin growth by sourcing and negotiating a compelling, differentiated product range that meets our customers' evolving needs. You’ll be responsible for shaping and delivering the department’s buying and category strategy, working closely with the department’s merchandiser to ensure commercial alignment across plans. Success in this role requires collaboration across the business — particularly with channel owners — to make sure product strategies support broader sales and profitability targets across retail and digital channels. You will also lead all supplier relationships within your category, negotiating terms, securing funding, and ensuring supplier partnerships are aligned with our commercial goals. This is a high-impact role for someone who combines strategic thinking with commercial know-how and a passion for bringing exceptional products to market.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and deliver the department’s buying and category strategy, identifying areas where Lakeland can differentiate and win commercially.
• Achieve sales and margin targets by defining, sourcing, designing, and negotiating an optimal product range.
• Develop a deep and regular understanding of competitor activity to ensure Lakeland remains market-leading.
• Drive promotional planning, negotiating special buys and cost reductions that support sales and profit growth.
• Manage the end-to-end critical path – including QA and packaging – ensuring on-time product delivery.
• Partner with the Quality team to uphold legal and environmental standards; work with Customer Services to address customer feedback and product returns.
• Lead supplier relationships, overseeing negotiations, funding, and the supplier rate card to maximise commercial benefit.

Experience & Knowledge

• A demonstrable track record of operating in a buying role gained within a non-food (and ideally hard goods) retail organisation.
• Proven experience in developing and articulating a strategic buying and category plan, as well as translating it into an executable roadmap.
• Experienced in leading and managing a team to deliver against the plan created.
• Significant experience of sourcing internationally and especially the Far East.
• Strong experience in supplier management and negotiation, with a high level of numeracy.
• Multi-channel background with an understanding of the implications of the retail and online channels on the product selections.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, with a high level of computer literacy and numeracy.

Key Capabilities

• Commercially astute and poses strong analytical skills, able to make sense of complex and logical problems quickly with the ability to turn data into action.
• A clear thinker, with strong management presence - able to clearly articulate and build confidence in the plan, ultimately inspiring others to follow.

What We're looking For

• Customer focused, with the ability to recognise the customer and commercial trade-offs, articulating the case for change with supporting customer and commercial benefits.
• Naturally planned and organised, juggling multiple time horizons, with the ability to prioritise and manage competing demands to drive the greatest value.
• An expert influencer and engager, able to build and nurture relationships with suppliers, yet be positively demanding.
• Confidence, patience, politeness, tact and diplomacy, when dealing with difficult situations.
• Authentic leadership, focused on enabling others to develop and shine.

About Lakeland

Founded in the early 60s, with the same strong values of quality and customer care now as when we first started. From selling plastic bags for home freezing from the Rayner family garage in Windermere, to over 4000 kitchen and home products today, Lakeland has grown to the extent that we now send out thousands of parcels a day from our Kendal despatch centre, and we have stores nationwide, stretching from Aberdeen to Exeter, with more in the pipeline.

Benefits

There are many benefits to being part of the Lakeland team. Other than being part of a huge and happy working family, our colleagues are rewarded with a competitive salary, discretionary bonus scheme and a group personal pension plan. There are 29 days’ paid holiday (including bank holidays) and generous discounts on our products. We offer a great retail environment, and the chance to be part of a team who like to work and socialise together.