Food Buyer
Job description / Role
Employment: Full Time
About the company
Established in the 1930s as a trading business, Al-Futtaim Group today is one of the most diversified and progressive, privately held regional businesses headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Structured into five operating divisions: automotive, financial services, real estate, retail, and healthcare; employing more than 35,000 employees across more than 20 countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, Al-Futtaim Group partners with over 200 of the world's most admired and innovative brands.Al-Futtaim Group's entrepreneurship and relentless customer focus enables the organisation to continue to grow and expand, responding to the changing needs of our customers within the societies in which we operate.
By upholding our values of respect, excellence, collaboration, and integrity, Al-Futtaim Group continues to enrich the lives and aspirations of our customers each and every day.
Overview of the role
The role of the food buyer is to purchase external brands / local sourcing products (ambient, frozen, grocery & chilled, non-food) to be sold in the stores and used as materials for cafes across the MENA region.
The job holder is responsible for the following:
- Sourcing and developing new brands and categories by analyzing the gaps and opportunities versus M&S range and the market trends.
- Launching new projects commercially.
- Planning and achieving agreed net margins, wastage, and markdown as per food strategy.
- Tracking and reporting key functional metrics to maximize profits, grow market share and sales, and create joint business plans for growth with regional suppliers in line with the food strategy and with M&S Plan A sustainability plan.
- Liaising with UK, planning, ordering, listing, and forecasting M&S product for all markets in MENA and managing stocks to ensure full availability across all MENA stores (M&S nonfood, café ingredients).
- On-boarding suppliers and sourcing strategies.
- Signing commercial agreements with suppliers and implementing in-store activities related to local suppliers.
- Category management and store layout.
What you will do
Description of accountability:
Food operation- Planning, forecasting, and ordering for all the relevant product categories.
- Build and develop relationships with new regional suppliers for various branded categories.
- Build, manage, and develop joint business plans and commercial agreements with suppliers negotiating beneficial terms for the company, optimal cost prices, BDIs, etc.
- Maintaining and storing supplier database, contract records, product specification sheets, and related documentation.
- Ensuring all sourced products meet the required quality standards and specifications as per M&S and/or country requirements.
- Research market trends, market prices, and conduct competitor analysis reviews to identify potential price review opportunities with suppliers.
- Create an annual category plan in terms of promotions, events, and new product range to grow sales, profitability, and increase market share in a customer-focused manner.
- Plan and lead yearly product category reviews and benchmarks.
- Support the delivery of shared targets across the wider team.
- Successfully source and manage supplier relationships to deliver performance in line with the food strategy.
- Build and send category tenders to current and new suppliers to identify any potential cost savings.
- Liaise with logistics and the compliance team to ensure product is registered and RTM established before ordering.
- Work cross-functionally and communicate weekly with operations, marketing, M&S UK team, stores, and supply chain.
- Continuously search for opportunities to maximize sales and cash margin.
- Plan and implement long-term development strategies for product categories.
- Handle recipe and menu management system for M&S Cafes within the MENA region.
- Work closely with the digital team to build/update the online platform catalogue and maintain stock availability.
- Supervise food category assistants' duties.
- Liaise with the UK team to monitor incoming shipments to avoid unexpected delays and take immediate action in case of any impact on stock availability.
- Coordinate with marketing, food operation team, and stores team for launching new ranges and events.
- Work closely with logistics team to improve supply chain, reduce delivery lead time to save cost, and improve stock availability especially in non-UAE markets.
- Build good relationships with colleagues within M&S MENA.
- Build good relationships with UK M&S team, AFG operations team, VM team, marketing team, digital, and store team.
- Provide regular feedback to team members and recognize individuals who perform well in their role.
- Communicate effectively and engage team through regular updates and team briefs.
- Manage, develop, and define objectives and KPIs for his/her Category Assistant.
- Build a strong training, recruitment, succession, and engagement plan for the hospitality team.
- Understand Employee Engagement Survey scores and make commitments to drive improvements across the team, department, and store.
- Recognize individuals and team to celebrate success.
- Take an active role in ensuring all new and existing employees develop the skills and experience to perform well in their role.
- Implement company HR policies fairly and consistently.
- Able to analyze financial, market, and customer data to identify opportunities.
- Able to spot issues and effectively plan to mitigate risk.
- Excellent interpersonal and leadership skills.
- Computer literacy, knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and SAP.
- Contract negotiation skills.
- Outgoing, positive, willing to take challenges and work under pressure.
- A results-driven personality who values teamwork as an integral part of getting great results.
- Bachelor degree.
- 5+ years of experience in food buying in FMCG companies.
- Food technical and supply chain experience would be ideal.
- Understanding of buying merchandising.
- Very organized and structured.
- Very good communication skills.
- Very curious and outgoing.
We're here to provide excellent service but a little help from you can ensure a five-star candidate experience from start to finish.
Before you apply: Please read the job description carefully to ensure you can confidently demonstrate why this opportunity is right for you and take the time to put together a well-crafted and personalised CV to further boost your visibility.Our global talent acquisition team members are all assigned to specific businesses to ensure that we make the best matches between talent and opportunities. We not only consider the requisite compatibility of skills and behaviours, but also how candidates align with our values of respect, integrity, collaboration, and excellence.
As part of our candidate experience promise, we also want to make ourselves available to you throughout the application process. We make every effort to review and respond to every application.
About the Company
Established in the 1930's, the Al-Futtaim Group initially operated as a trading enterprise. Rapid development throughout the 1940's and 50's saw it establish itself regionally as an integrated commercial, industrial and services organisation, positioning itself one of the leading business houses in the lower Gulf region.Today, it operates collectively over 40 companies bearing the Al-Futtaim name, dominates many market segments in the UAE, and has expanded its sphere of operation to include Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Egypt.
The Group comprises a diverse range of strategically positioned operating subsidiaries and associate companies, structured to give the Al-Futtaim Group the flexibility and versatility to keep ahead of local competition while keeping pace with the ever-evolving global business scenario.The Groups continued investment in world-class systems technology is clear evidence of its commitment to maintain leading edge performance and service delivery.
The success of the Al-Futtaim Group can be attributed to a business approach that combines the ability to change with the traditional values of integrity, service and social responsibility that define its core business philosophy. This, linked with the Groups belief in decentralisation, gives the heads of the operating companies a high degree of functional autonomy and authority, providing the Group with essential flexibility, and individual employees a clearly defined work culture and sense of responsibility.
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