Category Buying Manager – Full time
£80,000 to £100,000 plus excellent benefits (Work Level 4)

Manchester City Centre. In this role you’ll work in a hybrid way – splitting your time between home and the office (find out more about our hybrid working policy at colleagues.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy)

Full time, 37.5 hours

12-month fixed-term contract

We’re looking for a Commercial Buying Manager to lead our brilliant Buying team. 

In Commercial, we’re all about buying the products our customers love. We’re passionate about sourcing amazing products at the best possible price. That’s what it means to us to do right by our member-owners.

In this role you’ll be key to the growth and success of the convenience food category – leading your team to set and deliver our category strategy. But because we’re Co-op, we do things a bit differently. Getting the best value for customers can’t come at the expense of other businesses in our supply chain. We work fairly and co-operatively with all our suppliers (the clue’s in the name).

You’ll work hard here, but we’ll give you balance. And we promise to protect your wellbeing through flexible working arrangements, supportive leadership and a wide range of forward-thinking people policies and services. 

What you’ll do 

• Develop an innovative customer-focused strategy across the convenience food category, and make sure this is delivered on time and to budget
• Inclusively lead and develop a team of Buyers, making sure they have the support they need to deliver in their role
• Develop a coherent and comprehensive promotional plan and drive strong sales across the category through the Buyers
• Lead on key projects within Commercial such as driving the quality agenda 
• Be responsible for the P&L budget and managing spend against this
• Work collaboratively with key external suppliers, as well as other partners across the business 
• Champion our diversity and inclusion and sustainability goals as part of our wider Co-op principles
• Work with the pricing team to set the pricing strategy to make sure our member-owners and customers are getting the best value for money

This role would suit people who have 

• Significant experience within a senior buying / leadership role
• Strong commercial acumen and a customer focussed approach
• Previous experience of leading and inspiring a team in an inclusive way
• The ability to build collaborative relationships and get buy in from key internal and external partners
• Strong communication skills with the ability to challenge and influence in a constructive way up to senior/director level
• A keen interest in Co-op and our products 

Why Co-op? 

If you have the skills that we need, we can offer you a competitive salary and great benefits package which includes 30% off Co-op branded products in our food stores (as well as other discounts on Co-op products and services).

• An annual bonus (based on personal and business performance)
• 28 days holiday (rising to 32 with service) plus bank holidays 
• A pension with up to 10% employer contributions
• Private healthcare 
• Access to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ)
• Coaching and training to support your career development
• Wagestream app – giving you access to a percentage of your pay as you earn

At Co-op, we’re proud to do things a different way. As one of the world’s largest co-operatives, owned by millions of members, community is at the heart of what we do. Since our Co-op was founded in 1844, we’ve had a clear social purpose, and everything we do as a business helps to build a fairer world for our members, customers, colleagues, and communities. 

Building a diverse environment

We’re actively building diverse teams and we welcome applications from everyone. If you have a disability, we can make reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process according to your needs. We're also part of the Disability Confident scheme, meaning we'll always offer an interview to disabled candidates who apply through the scheme if they meet the minimum criteria for a job.

We'll ask whether you’d like to be considered under the Disability Confident scheme when you apply.

If we invite you to take part in the recruitment process for any of our jobs, we’ll ask you if you need any reasonable adjustments to enable you to participate.

You can find out more about our recruitment process at jobs.coop.co.uk/apply-process

You can find out more about the Disability Confident scheme and all our commitments to diversity and inclusion at colleagues.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion-and-wellbeing

As part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes between 45-60 minutes. If you're a current Co-op colleague, this does not need to be completed.