Inventory & Procurement Manager in Norwich

Makers is an artisanal luxury chocolaterie and coffee shop located in the heart of Chelsea. Every creation – from chocolates and baked goods to soft serve and more – is made with clean ingredients and is 100% dairy free, wheat free, seed oil free, and refined sugar-free. In just a short time, Makers is building a loyal following and establishing itself as a destination for a new kind of indulgence. As we grow across retail, e-commerce, wholesale, gifting and production, we're hiring an Inventory & Procurement Manager to build and own the operational backbone of the business. This is a senior, hands-on, build-it-from-scratch role.

You'll own procurement, inventory and operational systems end-to-end — turning purchasing and stock into clean, trustworthy cost data the whole business runs on, and giving leadership real visibility on margin for the first time. This role sits at the centre of product, finance and operations. Success means protecting margin, reducing waste, improving stock accuracy and giving the leadership team clear visibility on what each product truly costs and contributes.

Who we're looking for

A purchaser from a restaurant, hotel or private members' club. You think in food cost and gross margin, you understand perishable and artisan supply rather than commodity logistics, you negotiate hard on ingredients and packaging, and you've run a central kitchen or commissary serving multiple outlets. You are commercially minded, highly structured and confident enough to challenge numbers, suppliers, processes and product complexity. In a lean, fast-growing team you’ll wear many hats and roll up your sleeves wherever the business needs you.

What you'll own

• Procurement & suppliers
  • Own purchasing across production, retail, beverage, packaging, operating supplies and services.
  • Build and manage the supplier base across all operational categories; negotiate pricing, terms and lead times for best value without compromising quality.
  • Source and onboard new suppliers; conduct regular reviews on price, reliability and quality.
  • Implement sound purchasing policies, systems, and procedures.
• Inventory & stock control
  • Own inventory accuracy across raw materials, production, packaging, retail and finished goods.
  • Run stock counts, monthly stock-takes and variance investigations; enforce FIFO/FEFO and minimise wastage.
  • Own MarketMan (or equivalent): recipes, SKUs, par levels, supplier records and pricing — accurate and audit-ready.
  • Partner with the Store Manager, who owns day-to-day inventory counts at store level, ensuring those counts feed cleanly into central stock, variance and COGS reporting.
• Operations and KPI reporting
  • Build the SOPs and controls that let a lean team scale across multiple sites.
  • Own equipment maintenance and servicing contracts across the shop and production unit, keeping kit reliable, compliant and on schedule.
  • Support clean cost-of-goods reporting; reconcile POs, delivery notes and invoices with finance.
  • Report weekly and monthly on spend, stock, wastage, stock outs, variance and margin; flag risks and savings.
• Recipe costing, COGS & margin control
  • Own accurate recipe costing across all active SKUs, including ingredients, packaging, yield assumptions and supplier price changes.
  • Work with the Executive Chef and CEO to understand true food cost and gross margin.
  • Support product-level profitability reporting across all product categories and sales channels.
  • Support production, CEO and finance by flagging products with weak margin, high wastage.
  • Own the costing process for all existing and new products across retail, B2B, wholesale, corporate gifting, e-commerce and seasonal launches, ensuring every product is accurately costed before pricing, production or launch approval.
• Orders & growth
  • Oversee B2B, wholesale and corporate gifting orders — fulfilled accurately and on time.
  • Stand up the operational backbone for e-commerce and a second site as we grow.
  • Help build scalable processes that allow Makers to grow beyond one shop without losing control of cost, quality or stock.

What you'll bring

• 4+ years in purchasing or inventory management — restaurant, hotel, members' club, food production or luxury retail.
• Proven track record managing food cost and gross margin, measurably improved through buying and process.
• Built systems, controls and SOPs from scratch in a fast-moving environment.
• Confident supplier negotiation across ingredients and packaging.
• Inventory / EPOS / ERP systems (MarketMan a strong plus) and strong Excel / Google Sheets.
• Food safety knowledge (HACCP) strongly preferred.
• Meticulous, commercial and highly organised.
• Experience with recipe costing, product-level margin reporting, stock variance analysis and wastage reduction.
• Confident working cross-functionally with chefs, retail teams, finance and senior leadership.
• Able to turn messy operational information into simple, reliable reporting and clear decisions.

What success looks like

• Key KPIs: Stock accuracy and monthly stock variance.
• Food cost, packaging cost and gross margin by product family.
• Wastage by category and cause.
• Supplier price movements and savings achieved.
• PO, delivery note and invoice reconciliation accuracy.
• B2B, wholesale and gifting order profitability.
• MarketMan data accuracy, including recipes, SKUs, units, suppliers and pricing.

To apply: send your CV and a short note on a buying or stock-control result you're proud of.