Category Buyer

The Menu Partners is a diverse
food business supplying hotels, pubs and restaurants up and down the UK with
whole, prepared or cooked food.  Within our group of businesses, we also
have Absolute Taste, a leading event catering company, Absolute Taste Inflight,
our Private Jet catering business along with two farm shops, a pub and so much
more.

The Menu Partners and Absolute
Taste, two distinct business both at the cutting edge of their sectors,
building future business via great people, operating at some of the biggest and
greatest events on the planet, prepared to challenge the status quo, building
new cultures and operating procedures that will meet the future business needs,
attracting the best, supporting everybody, open minded, not afraid of change,
prepared to go that extra mile for our customers etc. 

We have the exciting opportunity
to join our fast-paced and quickly expanding company.  This role can be
based either at our London or Bicester (Oxfordshire) office locations. 

This role can based either in New
Covent Garden, London or Bicester, Oxfordshire depending where the candidate is
based. 

This is a great opportunity for
an ambitious, commercially driven category manager with experience in category
procurement to join fast-moving/paced. 

 You will take ownership for
category procurement at The Menu Partners, including developing your portfolio,
negotiating commercial opportunities with suppliers and work with other
departments to drive customer satisfaction across the business.

As the Category Buyer, you will have a central role by leading and controlling
the procurement activity within your category. You will get involved in a
variety of projects and contribute directly to driving the overall success of
the business.

This is a role critical to the
growth and development of the business. You'll be working within a small, high
performance buying team, reporting to the Head of Procurement.

KEY DIMENSIONS

• 
  
• Development and evolution of
  a commercially competitive portfolio of products.
  
• Take ownership of the
  end-to-end sourcing process.
  
• Effectively liaise with
  suppliers on range development and commercial terms.
  
• Working with sales teams to
  facilitate the company budgeted sales and margin targets.
  
• Support inventory buying and
  stock control teams.
  
• Produce detailed,
  informative, market information to support sales teams and customers.
  
• Set clear savings plans with
  objectives, goals, strategies, and measures.
  
• Provide regular updates to
  the Head of Procurement on progress, opportunities, and roadblocks.
  
• Partner Head of Procurement
  to develop a world class procurement team.
  
• Shielding the business
  against cost inflation.
  
• Ensuring effective cross
  functional communication
  

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Ideally, you will be experienced in buying/procurement within the food and
beverage industry.

The candidate is required to have
strong knowledge of the sectors diverse products and supply chain, with
appreciation for what is required to be a success in the Hospitality sector.

The key qualities required to perform the role successfully include:

• 
  
• Product & Industry
  knowledge.
  
• Enthusiastic and committed
  attitude.
  
• Agile thinker
  
• Develop and conclude
  substantial agreements.
  
• Effective communication
  skills
  
• Project management
  capability
  
• Ability to work at pace
  
• Proven track record of
  delivering category growth and cost savings