Senior Buyer - Grocery Drinks in London

Joining Sainsbury's Buying Teams means being part of a dedicated and friendly group working towards a mission that truly matters: Helping Everyone Eat Better. As a Buyer, you will have the opportunity to own, deliver, and optimise the buying and selling strategy within a specific category, contributing to the sustainable growth of market share and cash profit, working with major brands across soft drinks and no/low alcohol. Collaborating across functions, you will leverage your commercial acumen and analytical skills to drive product improvement, develop new offerings, and identify cost savings. With a focus on customer-centricity, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the product range, influencing stakeholders, and making key decisions to enhance our customers' experience.

As a Buyer in our Sainsbury's Buying Teams, you will play a vital role in ensuring that we get the best products at the best prices to deliver quality and value to our customers. You will own, deliver, and optimise the buying and selling strategy for a specific buying area within the Grocery Drinks category, with the responsibility of driving sustainable market share growth and cash profit through a competitive and distinctive customer offer. In this role, you will work cross-functionally to review product ranges, identifying opportunities for product improvement, new product development, and cost savings. You will make key decisions in both the Buying Strategy and Selling Strategy, influencing stakeholders and using financial, market, and customer data to drive a market-leading product range. Additionally, you will optimise the supply base, manage supplier relationships, and lead cross-functional projects to deliver successful outcomes.

You are a highly experienced professional with a proven track record in negotiating with suppliers and optimising product ranges to deliver quality and value to customers. With your strong commercial acumen, you develop and execute customer-focused category plans aligned with the company's strategy, aiming to sustainably grow market share and cash profit. Your ability to analyse financial, market, and customer data allows you to identify opportunities for product improvement, new product development, and cost savings. Collaborating cross-functionally, you review product ranges, make key decisions in buying and selling strategies, and effectively manage supplier relationships to achieve performance objectives.

Essential Criteria:

• Demonstrable experience in Food Buying, ideally with exposure to branded products and the ability to deliver results quickly in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience managing relationships with large FMCG brands, demonstrating the ability to collaborate with major suppliers and operate effectively within fast‑paced, commercially driven categories.
• Ability to handle complex stakeholder interactions, demonstrating resilience and confidence in challenging conversations and decision-making.
• Experience managing relationships & proven negotiation skills within a long-term supplier agreement framework with a track record of leveraging commercial terms and driving value in supplier agreements.

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer, so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new - whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits.

Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to get 10% off at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day. We've also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover. You'll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance-related bonus of up to 20% of salary, depending on how we perform.

Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy additional holiday. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, interest free car loan of up to £10k, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. And if you ever need it there is also an Employee Assistance Programme, you will also be eligible for private healthcare too. Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave.

Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).