Food buyer
Our food buyers are responsible for delivering products that meet our customers’ expectations for quality and value.
Based at our Waterside Head Office in London, they keep an eye on the latest market developments and make commercial decisions that affect all our customers and stores.
Buyers work within category teams with responsibility for a specific product group. Their responsibilities include creating profitable product ranges, managing the supply base and driving cost price negotiations.
As a graduate, what would my role be?
You’ll start off as a graduate food buyer, spending at least two years working in different food areas within the business until you’ve gained enough experience to become a fully operational buyer. A key part of your role will be to develop your market knowledge, and your understanding of the category and the supplier process. You’ll spend a lot of time developing strong and effective relationships within your category team. With a supply base spread across the four corners of the globe, you may also enjoy the opportunity to travel.
How will you help me develop?
You will be offered both in-house and external training that enables you to become a major contributor to your department’s performance. The majority of your learning will be on-the-job, although you’ll also spend time working at our suppliers, and in our stores, to understand the full process of how a product travels from the production line to a customer’s trolley.
What sort of qualities are you looking for?
You’ll need to have a degree, ideally business related, and be commercially astute and highly numerate. Excellent communication skills are also a must, as you’ll be working closely with a variety of internal teams as well as external suppliers. If you’re the type of person who enjoys working through problems and coming up with new solutions along the way, even better.
What happens after I’ve completed the scheme?
Once you’ve completed your training period, you’ll have built up enough knowledge to succeed in the role you’ll take on at the end of the programme. This appointment will be into one of the categories within Foods. From there, we’ll continue to help you develop your skills and give you the chance to work in a number of different areas to broaden your experience as well as progress through different roles – but as to how quickly you go forward, that will depend on your ability and desire to succeed.
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