Buyer
Our client is looking for an experienced Buyer to take ownership of day-to-day purchasing, stock planning and supplier management. This is a varied, hands-on role combining operational buying with commercial analysis, giving you the opportunity to make a real impact on product availability, customer service and margins.
Working closely with Sales, Customer Service and Accounts, you’ll ensure the right products are available at the right time and price, while identifying opportunities to improve buying terms, reduce costs and maximise profitability across existing customer accounts.
What you’ll be doing
- Purchasing & stock planning: Manage purchase orders, monitor stock levels, resolve shortages and forecast demand to ensure product availability and meet customer deadlines.
- Supplier management: Build effective supplier relationships, negotiate competitive prices and terms, source new products and alternatives, and monitor supplier performance.
- Order progression: Track outstanding orders, resolve delivery delays and keep Customer Service informed of any issues.
- Commercial support: Work with Sales to prepare accurate costings for quotations, RFQs and tenders, taking account of product costs, freight, duty, lead times and other buying considerations.
- Margin improvement: Analyse sales and purchasing data to identify cost savings, alternative products, improved buying terms and opportunities to increase profitability.
- Team leadership: Manage and support an Assistant Buyer, setting priorities, allocating workloads and encouraging development.
- Systems & reporting: Maintain accurate product, pricing and stock data, using Excel and Microsoft Copilot AI tools to support forecasting and commercial analysis.
- Finance & supplier queries: Liaise with Accounts on invoices, supplier set-up, rebates, discounts and cash-flow planning, as well as managing returns, credits and replacements.
About you
You’ll have previous buying or purchasing experience within a product-based business, ideally involving stockholding, imported products and multiple suppliers. You’ll be confident managing purchase orders, negotiating with suppliers and understanding product costings, landed costs and gross margins.
You’ll also bring
- Strong commercial awareness and excellent numerical and analytical skills.
- Advanced Excel skills, including lookups, pivot tables, formulae and trend analysis.
- The ability to manage competing priorities while maintaining accuracy and meeting deadlines.
- Ideally have experience coordinating or supervising a team member.
- A proactive, organised approach, with the confidence to take ownership and make informed decisions.
- Clear communication skills and a collaborative approach to working across different teams.
Salary and benefits
- Salary between £35,000 - £40,000 depending on experience
- Bonus based on achievement of set targets
- 25 days holiday plus stats, rising to 30 days after 12 months service
If this sounds of interest please get in touch ASAP to Louise - Unity Resourcing