Buyer – Co-op Funeralcare

£46,400 - £58,000 plus benefits (Work level 5)  

Field based, in this role you’ll work in a hybrid way splitting your time between home and visiting our suppliers and branches across the UK with occasional visits to our Manchester office (find out more about our hybrid working policy at jobs.coop.co.uk/hybrid-working-policy)

We’re looking for a Buyer to join us and help us develop and deliver our Funeralcare commercial category strategy. We’ll look to you to develop a strong strategy for your categories which could include; memorial items, stationery goods, floral tributes and masonry.  

You’ll be doing all the usual activities typical of a commercial buyer role, with a huge focus on customer’s needs and its supplier relationships. The range of products you’ll source and manage, will ultimately help families up and down the UK, say goodbye to their loved ones in the most meaningful way possible.  

What you’ll do

• Take ownership of the commercial performance of your categories – driving sales and conversion while maintaining and strengthening margins
• Forge and maintain strong beneficial relationships with your suppliers, managing agreed performance targets and applying a partnership approach
• Take an interest in understanding priorities and strategies in other commercial teams such as; Propositions, Field-ops, Finance, Marketing and Digital  
• Focus on value engineering within categories exploring process improvement, cost management all while managing risk
• Make sure the category strategy is delivered on time and to budget by working collaboratively with your wider commercial team.  
• Carry out supplier negotiations, contract management, sourcing & supporting on range reviews

This role would suit people who have  

• Strong buying skills: this could be from either a procurement or buying background in a variety of industries
• Experience of working in a customer or client centric role.  
• Good numerical and analytical skills
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate and influence with a range of teams & partners  
• Experience using the Microsoft office package – including using Excel at an intermediate level and pulling together engaging presentations

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
• 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

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 jobs.coop.co.uk/diversity-inclusion-wellbeing  

Please note that we may close applications for this role early.

As part of your application, you'll need to complete an online assessment. This assessment typically takes up to 50 minutes. If you're a current Co-op colleague, this does not need to be completed.