Buying Manager

A leading retailer is seeking a Head of Buying to take the reins of their buying function and shape the future direction of their product ranges. This is an opportunity for you to step into a pivotal, hands-on leadership role where your expertise will directly influence the success of the business. You will be empowered to own the entire buying journey and develop a dedicated team, ensuring that every range excites customers, delivers robust margins, arrives on time, and sells at the right rate.

What You'll Do:

As Head of Buying, you will play a central role in shaping the company’s future collections. You will also:

• Build commercially balanced product ranges across multiple categories, styles, colours, sizes, and price points.
• Lead, coach, and manage a buying team of four colleagues.
• Oversee all aspects of supplier strategy across international markets by sourcing new suppliers and negotiating favourable terms including prices, minimum order quantities (MOQs), lead times, payment terms, and exclusivity agreements.
• Establish strong long-term relationships with suppliers while rationalising the supplier base when necessary.
• Manage the complete product development process from concept through sampling to costing, compliance checks, quality approval stages, and final production sign-off.
• Collaborate closely with suppliers and Quality Control teams to resolve any issues swiftly.
• Forecast demand accurately.

What You Bring:

To excel as Head of Buying in this thriving home interiors business based in Yorkshire you will bring significant experience gained within similar sectors where commercial results matter just as much as aesthetic appeal. Your background should include

• Extensive experience in buying roles within furniture, homewares, or interiors.
• Proven track record mentoring, managing and developing people within a buying role.
• Demonstrated ability in range planning.
• Strong supplier negotiation skills including experience sourcing internationally (particularly from the Far East) while managing complex supply chains efficiently.
• Comprehensive understanding of commercial metrics such as margins calculation; landed costs; MOQs; open-to-buy positions; budget management; risk identification/mitigation strategies.
• Advanced forecasting abilities covering demand prediction by category/season plus creation/updating of replenishment plans based on real-time sales data analysis.
• Experience overseeing products from concept stage through launch—including responsibility for compliance checks/quality assurance/costing/production sign-off—with attention paid both to detail & big-picture outcomes.
• Excellent organisational and communication skills.

The Company:

Please note this is an onsite role. This organisation has carved out a reputation as one of Yorkshire’s most admired names in its industry. The company culture is defined by its supportive approach towards staff development, offering ample training opportunities designed not only around technical skillsets but also personal growth ambitions too (whether that means stepping up into more senior roles eventually or simply deepening expertise within current remit). With ambitious plans mapped out for future expansion/growth there couldn’t be better timing than now if you want join somewhere truly committed not only achieving great things commercially, but doing so together via shared sense purpose/community spirit underpinning everything they do day-in/day-out!

How to Apply:

Apply now or for more information, feel free to contact Senior Consultant Jess Vernal on jess.vernal@robertwalters.com or 07823647177.

Robert Walters Operations Limited is an employment business and employment agency and welcomes applications from all candidates