Senior Buyer (Indirects and Packaging) in Blagdon

Yeo Valley Production aims to Nurture & Nourish People & Planet by Making Great Food the Right Way. Forever. We are looking for an Indirects & Packaging Senior Buyer to join our growing Yeo Valley family. As a key member of the Procurement team, your role will be critical to ensuring that the procurement of packaging materials and indirect goods and services supports the delivery of our Yeo Valley growth ambitions and impacts.

You will be responsible for leading and supporting the procurement of agreed indirect and packaging goods and services for our Yeo Valley Farms (Production) Ltd (YVFP) and Yeo Valley Fruit (YVF) businesses. Your role will involve working with business stakeholders to develop category sourcing plans, completing market reviews, and identifying and implementing future sources of supply. Ensuring business growth through optimised contracts and supplier management will enable supply chain cost optimisation, quality and service improvements, innovation, and effective risk management.

Your responsibilities:

• Work with business stakeholders to develop category sourcing plans for indirect and packaging spend areas under influence – driving cost optimisation and innovation, improvements in quality, service, and supporting our business sustainability commitments.
• Negotiate and implement complex indirect supply contracts, completing market reviews where applicable to identify potential new sources of supply.
• Develop supplier contracts and master supply agreements that drive long-term improvements in business performance and manage supply chain risk.
• Implement and manage strategic supplier relationship programmes, ensuring delivery of indirect and packaging suppliers against defined cost, sustainability, quality, and service requirements.
• Optimise, manage, and monitor indirect supplier performance through appropriate contractual frameworks, specifications, service level agreements, and supplier management processes.
• Provide technical knowledge, training, and guidance to support the development of wider business capability in indirect materials and services sourcing, contracting, and supplier management.
• Manage the implementation of key indirect and packaging projects, ensuring appropriate buy-in from key stakeholders and suppliers to ensure prioritisation and resource support.
• Work with the Procurement Manager – Packaging and Indirects, the wider procurement team, and business stakeholders to identify and implement improvements to indirect procurement systems and processes.
• Support the development of the YV Energy sourcing strategy and lead our energy trading programme.

This role sits within the Central Procurement team and reports to the Packaging Procurement Manager. The working hours are 40 hours per week, Monday - Friday, and the role is based in our YVHQ offices in Blagdon, Somerset. While we operate with flexible working principles, we expect our co-owners to be present in the office 2-3 days a week.

Sounds interesting, what do I need?

Essential:

• Proven track record in developing and implementing procurement category plans and delivering sustainable cost savings.
• Proven negotiator with excellent influencing skills.
• Able to manage multiple projects at once and work to tight or challenging deadlines.
• Tenacious, resilient, self-motivated, and adaptable, able to juggle multiple and changing priorities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, ability to communicate at all levels both internally and externally.
• Proven experience in building strategic supplier relationships.
• Proven experience in identifying and mitigating supply chain risk.

Desirable:

• FMCG/Food manufacturing experience.
• CIPS Qualified.
• Degree Educated or equivalent work experience.
• Project Management experience.

Why should I join the family?

We’re independent, British, and proud to be making the highest quality yogurts, desserts, and ice cream under the Yeo Valley brand and for many of the UK’s major retailers. Operating from four dairies and two logistics centres in Somerset and Devon, we employ over 1900 staff and produce more than 25% of the UK’s packaged yogurt. We offer a whole host of benefits including:

• Competitive holiday allowance.
• Non-contributory pension scheme.
• Life cover.
• Healthcare cash back plan.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Subsidised Yeo Valley products and services.
• Preferential rates with our partners.
• Learning and development opportunities; we’re committed to ensuring all of our employees have the chance to grow.

Our closing dates are a guide for when the application window should close, although we may close the advert sooner if we can. We recommend you get your application in straight away – and don’t miss the opportunity to join us! Unfortunately, we’re not able to provide employment sponsorship to candidates at this moment in time. Please note that Yeo Valley do not accept speculative agency applications; we will only accept applications from preferred suppliers that have been submitted to us via our recruitment portal at the point of instruction.