One of our clients in the foodservice industry are looking for a Fruit & Veg Buyer to join their team.
Overall Purpose of the Role
As the buyer for fruit & veg, you will support and develop the end-to-end procurement process for this category.
You will be responsible for planning, negotiating and executing contract renewals as well as managing supplier relationships.
Commercially you will be expected to support their overarching strategy to drive volume growth, negotiate sustainable terms & provide value and benefit to their Clients and GPO’s.
You will be key to supporting their CSR commitments, following their sourcing standards during the procurement process.
You will engage with their culinary teams and development chefs to support their client’s food strategies by providing products to meet their requirements.
Key Responsibilities
You will support the Category Manager to develop and execute a long-term category strategy to deliver sustainable improvements in terms of cost, quality, service and innovation, in collaboration with the procurement team & other relevant business stakeholders.
Identifying potential suppliers, visiting, and meeting existing suppliers, building, and maintaining relationships.
You will understand key cost drivers, industry trends and standard methodologies to design/implement the category strategy for the fruit & veg category.
Develop and maintain long-term pricing mechanisms across the fruit & veg supply base to drive sustainable competitive advantage.
You will support our supply chain team to ensure on -time direct supply and supply via distributor aligned to SLA’s.
Ensure your product range is compliant with food safety regulations & CSR requirements, ensuring high quality standards always.
You will be accountable for your category spend.
Evaluating bids with the sourcing team and making recommendations based on commercial, technical,
supply and quality requirements, using your category expertise and knowledge.
You will communicate industry trends across the business.
Regularly review supplier performance to support category growth.
Manage category related queries from internal and external stakeholders.
Support our sales and bid teams with content.
Candidate Profile
Results Oriented – comfortable delivering against bold and stretching targets.
Experience in food procurement/sourcing.
Passion for the veg & fruit category, with subject matter expertise.
Has the technical skill combined with enough gravitas to become recognised as a subject matter expert.
Competent with procurement systems, ideally having used these in current/previous employment.
Demonstrated ability to develop credible business relationships. Ideal skills and experience required
Internal
Strong decision maker, with good commercial acumen who is comfortable working under pressure.
Effective interpersonal skills – excellent negotiator and strong communication and influencing skills.
Ability to influence - not afraid to challenge across all levels of seniority.
Strong communication skills – able to communicate concisely and steer conversation towards decisions needed.
Strong analytical skills with advanced knowledge of Excel.
Proven ability to reduce costs against tough market conditions.
Problem solving – ability to work independently to solve challenging problems.
Confident presenter.
Evidence of an ability to work cross-functionally.
Ambitious high performer with excess enthusiasm, energy, passion and resilience.
High sensitivity to deadlines and providing information in a timely manner.