Strategic Buyer - Blackburn

Position Overview:

We are looking for a Strategic Buyer to join our procurement team at Pets Choice

This is a new role to support our growing business that will focus on sourcing materials, commodities and ingredients which will be used at our Pet Food manufacturing sites in Blackburn.

Location:

Blackburn, Hybrid

Company Overview:

Pets Choice is a leading pet food manufacturer whose industry knowledge spans over 135 years. Based in Blackburn, Lancashire, the Pets Choice portfolio of brands offers a variety of products for pets and wild animals under its brands; Webbox, TastyBone, Meatiful, Spike’s World, Goodwyns, Davies, Oceanic and Vitakraft. Each brand offers a unique insight into animals from dogs to ducks and produces high-quality products that cater to a wide variety of consumer needs. As a trusted partner, Pets Choice provide private label goods including extruded food, wet food and retorted trays, and baked fresh meat treats. The business also offers additional services such as packaging design, fulfilment and logistics. With a broad range of capabilities and distribution channels worldwide, Pets Choice are proud to be a major supplier to the UK grocery, independents and pet speciality sectors.

Role:

• Develop innovative supplier partnerships to support a lean and profitable supply chain.
• Manage supplier performance and implement scorecard to align business objectives on cost, quality OTIF, lead-times etc.
• Identify areas of risk in the supply chain, prioritise and implement plans to mitigate such risks.
• Conduct contract negotiation and ongoing market (price) analysis and report conclusions.
• Prepare requests for Tender (RFQ’s) and documentation.
• Collation and reporting of cost saving against targets and track impact of profitability.
• Responsible for accurate item costs into P&L.
• Conduct logistic analysis to determine most cost effective and efficient methods with both suppliers and customers (cost to serve)
• Drive business and industry compliance aligning with the Technical department.
• Supplier visits.
• Provide support to the business during execution of larger projects, including NPD and innovation pipeline.

Key attributes and skills:

• Previous experience in a similar role with a proven track record of delivering savings.
• Contract negotiation skills.
• Confident communicator.
• Team player.
• Organised with attention to detail.
• Relationship building with both internal & external stakeholders.
• Resilient with a proactive approach.
• Computer literate.
• Experience gained from the Food or Pet Food Industry is highly desirable.