Purchasing Assistant (CIPS Support)
Salary between £23,000 - £26,000 DOE
BBF Limited
Blackburn, Lancashire
Are you ready to embark on an exciting journey towards becoming a procurement expert? Do you possess the drive, hunger, and creativity to excel in a dynamic purchasing environment? If so, we have the perfect opportunity for you!
Who are we looking for?
We are seeking a motivated and commercially astute individual to join our team as a Purchasing Assistant. This role offers the unique opportunity to kickstart your career in procurement, with the potential to quickly advance into a Junior Buyer position. As a Purchasing Assistant, you will be at the forefront of our procurement operations, gaining invaluable hands-on experience and receiving full support to obtain your CIPS qualifications.
You will start by assisting our procurement/purchasing team with administrative tasks, gaining insights into the procurement process and learning the ropes of the industry.
As you demonstrate your capabilities and commitment, you will transition into a Junior Buyer position where you will actively contribute to supplier management, contract negotiation and strategic sourcing initiatives.
Alongside the support you'll receive day-to-day from the team, you will be fully supported with your CIPS (Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply) qualifications, starting with your Level 3 and progressing stage by stage.
To succeed in this role, you'll need to be driven and have the hunger to learn and progress. An out-of-the-box thinker, you'll appreciate that procurement is about finding innovative solutions and tackling problems from new angles.
The role of Purchasing Assistant (CIPS Support) at BBF
Support procurement activities including e-tender RFI generation and e-auction assistance.
Assist Category Buyers in sourcing raw materials, shadowing their activities, and maintaining supplier relationships.
Attend NPD and relevant meetings to provide purchasing input.
Maintain BBF database, contracts, and supplier information on SharePoint.
Collaborate with the technical team to ensure supplier vendor assurance and scorecard are up to date.
Manage supplier reports, claims, and purchasing input on SharePoint.
Maintain ERP system for purchasing data, contracts, pricing, and reporting.
Provide cross-site functional support to Blackburn, Bradford, and Hull sites.
Conduct factory/supplier visits for category understanding and relationship-building.
Assist in compiling monthly reports for Board Reports, covering positions and commodity movements.
Establish and maintain contract agreements with suppliers for auditing purposes.
Ensure accurate pricing through internal systems (System 21 and Tropos).
Act as the primary point of contact for raw material suppliers, managing supply, pricing, innovation, and trials.
Support Finance by ensuring accurate costing documents for new briefs and addressing price queries.
Who are BBF Limited?
BBF Limited are one of the UK's leading ambient cake and chilled dessert manufacturers of retailer own label, licensed and branded cakes, supplying recognisable major retailers across the UK and European market.
Our team of experts develop and manufacture a wide range of high-quality ambient cake products across several different categories including celebration cakes, mini rolls, mince pies, fruit pies and a wide range of chilled desserts including cheesecake, crumbles and sponge cakes. These include mince pies, celebration cakes, slab cakes, cupcakes and many more!
We are passionate about our products and aim to put the customer at the heart of everything we do.
With recent investment and acquisitions taking us to nearly 1,400 direct employees, this is an exciting time to join BBF Limited! We are continually looking to grow, but we can only do that with exceptional talent across all levels and disciplines of the business. That is where you come into it!
On top of making some delicious cakes and desserts, we do a lot of fun stuff too! Whether that be Christmas fun days, pancake-flipping competitions, Red Nose Day events or odd-sock days, you'll be coming to work smiling.
What benefits do we offer?
Financial
Salary between £23,000 - £26,000 depending on experience
4x Life Assurance/Death in Service Benefit
Access to the company Benefits Hub
Access to 'Company Shop' - a discounted re-distributor of surplus food and household products
Health & Wellbeing
25 days holiday per annum (plus statutory holidays)
24/7 Access to a GP
24/7 Bereavement Support
Personal & Professional Development
Full CIPS (Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply) support.
A clear path for career progression, with opportunities to advance into more senior positions as you develop your skills and expertise.
Dedicated in-house Learning & Development/Training team.
Online training platform with access to 100+ training courses.
A few other bits
Hybrid working (3 days in the office, 2 days at home)
Quarterly and Yearly BBF Star Awards - recognising those who have gone above and beyond!
Free on-site parking
Free refreshments
Recruitment Agencies
All our recruitment is managed centrally via the internal recruitment team. We operate a recruitment PSL when we require assistance, and we aren't adding to this at present. Any agency assistance will be instructed accordingly and therefore any CVs sent to any BBF Limited employee will be treated as a gift and won't be liable for a fee. Please don't speculatively contact us in relation to this vacancy or any other vacancy.