Purchasing Manager - Print or Greetings industry

Location; Bath Based (plus able to travel as required)

Our client is a growing, acquisitive and dynamic organisation who has a new role for an experienced and entrepreneurial Procurement team manager with a background within the print, gift or greeting card industry and a proven track record of Far East purchasing in a FMCG environment.

This hands on role offers high level exposure, expansive decision making and the opportunity to be one of the senior stakeholders helping drive the decisions of the business.

The role involves driving the company's purchasing strategy with an eye on the wider business; looking at stocks, commercials, forecasts and sales trends to help ensure the right decisions about what to buy are made, when and from whom with good insight being applied at all times.

Different from other procurement roles this one also has the individual running one of our sales channels where the buying and selling functions are closely aligned and everything is customised. This requires helping to build the offer, signing off the commercials and ensuring best value and delivery for the customer whilst also having to roll ones sleeves up and place an order and look at the core details.

The Role:

• Manage the supply base, monitor and review performance and look for continuous improvement.
• Negotiate and review terms and prices with existing and new suppliers to gain cost improvement, value add and quality. Make sure the team deliver on these opportunities and synergies.
• Create synergy across the supply base to allow different suppliers to be used depending on leadtimes, capacity, complexity and requirement. Approach this from a UK and Far East expertise perspective.
• Make sure a proactive approach is taken with regard to stock, budget, requirement and forecast. Work with the wider team to ensure good end to end decisions are made.
• Work with all elements of the business to ensure the right product is bought in the first place, stock forecasting is optimised and stock redundancy is minimized and with commercial acceptability and budget.
• Take a leading role in working with all sales teams to source, specify and negotiate products, help mould the product to requirement and make good commercial decisions which will also involve working closely with the customers to ensure growth, profitability, quality, service and delivery.
• Run one specific highly competitive bespoke sales channel with 3 salespeople and a support team to ensure good product, range, service, commercials and quality are provided.
• Work with the product and design teams to help pre-empt and deliver the right product for the right customer.
• Manage the incoming Supply Chain and freight processes to ensure product and stock delivery schedules adhere to company, budget, quality and specification requirements plus customer needs and strive for continuous improvement.
• Awareness of any statutory or required environmental policies and develop a policy to encompass them. Stay ahead of market developments and have a plans in place to satisfy them. Similarly with ethical, quality and technical requirements.
• Work closely with the operational and internal teams to ensure the contracts run smoothly and delivery of strong processes and procedures
• Manage and attend regular contract review meetings with key clients as required.
• Recruit, develop, train, motivate and manage a team of 6+ individuals within purchasing, operations and supply chain.

The person:

• Knowledge of print manufacturing, paper printing, greetings or the gift industry is an advantage
• Lives readily accessible to Bath centre and able to travel.
• Ideally be educated to degree level or equivalent and be used to working under pressure and to tight deadlines.
• Strive for continuous improvement
• Experience of purchasing from Far Eastern locations and show leadership in good decision making.
• Strong negotiation skills along with excellent and proven customer service ability
• Highly numerate and computer literate and used to working with P&Ls, budgets and making good end to end commercial decisions.
• Excellent attention to detail to work on stocks, forecasts, budgets and ability to make good decisions based on having all the facts.
• Possess strong interpersonal skills and a forward-thinking commercial and practical approach
• Experience of wider management and can help take broader business and commercial decisions. Help stakeholders work on the product roadmap and requirement.
• Experience, desire and skillset to run a commercial department including ultimate P&L and delivery responsibility.
• Ability and willingness to get involved in the detail at every level. Raise the orders and specifications, interrogate the system and discuss forecasts whenever required.
• With your team drive accuracy and timeliness of everything; specifications, purchase orders, requirements and QC processes and also work with the wider business to ensure adherence to the critical path. Constantly risk assess issues and put plans in place to mitigate.
• Good team management and development experience. Leads from the front.
• Work to a high level of accuracy and have an eye for detail and opportunity. Used to working with a quality product and always striving to improve and innovate the product.
• Drive and develop strong internal processes and continuous improvements.
• This hands on role offers high level exposure, expansive decision making and the opportunity to be one of the senior stakeholders helping drive the decisions of the business.