Procurement Manager

The Procurement team is responsible for ensuring that the company has a clear strategy when purchasing goods and services.

Our indirect purchasing team has a growing responsibility to ensure goods and services are procured in an efficient way ensuring best value is achieved for the company.

This Procurement Manager role is to support the IT and Marketing departments with both non-tendered spend and tenders (for contracts worth over £100k per year.)

You will have a passion for purchasing and be experienced to work independently with stakeholders and suppliers. We are a growing, agile business and can support your career development.

Ideally educated to a degree standard you will have a talent in negotiation with exceptional networking and communication skills.

You will have a solid understanding of both the purchasing process (tender, negotiation and award) and strategic sourcing (market data, supply chain, cost control).

Most importantly, you are able to work on your own initiative as well as being an integral part of a high performing team.

apetito is the UK’s leading food supplier to the health and social care sectors serving more than 1,300 care homes, health care and education settings.

Our meals are expertly crafted by our dieticians and chefs, and then frozen to lock in the goodness.

Wiltshire Farm Foods, our sister company, is the UK’s largest ready meal supplier cooking and delivering over 330 different delicious frozen ready meals across the UK.

• To develop and implement sourcing and category plans aligned to business goals and objectives which deliver cost leadership, innovation, service excellence and process and product improvement
• Supplier evaluation, selection and contract development
• Implementation of initiatives through effective programme and project management
• provide support and advice in the sourcing of new goods/services for the wider business
• Compliance to procurement policies and procedures
• Capturing food safety and quality criteria within any procurement process that may pose any risk to food/the food manufacturing process with responses available to the technical team to manage any risk.
• Ensuring Ethical and Sustainable responsibilities are addressed in the supplier selection process

Essential:

• Proven strategic procurement experience
• Able to build strong working relationships with stakeholders
• Impactful and adaptable negotiator capable of influencing decision makers, suppliers and stake holders
• Competent using digital procurement tools
• Ability to develop robust contracts and negotiate contract terms
• Innovative thinker with ability to generate/deliver valued added procurement solutions that positively affect the performance of the business
• Highly analytical with the ability to measure and provide meaningful data insights
• Effective and adaptable communicator with strong interpersonal and relationship building skills
• Resilient and persistent with the ability to act at pace and influence decisions
• Strong personal organisation skills capable of initiating, prioritising and managing several projects simultaneously

Desirable:

• Previous experience of purchasing indirect categories in I.T and/or marketing 
• Degree, or equivalent, qualification in a relevant discipline. 
• Valid UK driving licence
• Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) membership or additional relevant postgraduate qualification

Personal Qualities:

• Persuading & Influencing - Makes a strong personal impression on others; Gains clear agreement and commitment from others by persuading, convincing and negotiating; Promotes ideas on behalf of self or others.
• Planning & Organising - Sets clearly defined objectives; Plans activities and projects well in advance and takes account of possible changing circumstances; Manages time effectively; Identifies and organises resources needed to accomplish tasks; Monitors performance against deadlines- Good problem solving skills and the ability to drive for completion and delivery.
• Entrepreneurial & Commercial Thinking -Keeps up-to-date with competitor information and market trends; Identifies business opportunities for the organisation; Demonstrates financial awareness; Controls costs and thinks in terms of profit, loss and added value.
• Analysing - Analyses numerical data, verbal data and all other sources of information; Probes for further information or greater understanding of a problem; Makes rational judgements from the available information and analysis; Produces workable solutions to a range of problems; Demonstrates an understanding of how one issue may be a part of a much larger system
• Deciding and Initiating Action - Makes prompt and clear decisions which may involve tough choices or considered risks; Takes responsibility for actions, projects and people; Takes initiative, acts with confidence and works under own direction; Initiates and generates activity.

• Competitive salary – accredited Living Wage employer
• 25 days holiday per year, plus bank holidays
• Option to purchase up to 5 additional days holiday per year
• Discretionary annual bonus scheme
• Pension scheme - employer matched contributions up to 4%
• Life assurance scheme worth at least 1x annual salary
• Subsidised canteen
• Free parking
• Free turkey or voucher at Christmas
• apetito perks scheme including salary sacrifice options and retail discounts

As a family-owned business, we take great pride in being a company that makes a real difference and is dedicated to creating outstanding meals to be proud of.

We develop a range of products designed to enhance health and well-being for all our customers.

We are driven by a passion for service and dedicated to feeding some of the UK’s most vulnerable people.

We proudly support British food and farming, focusing on using the best ethical and sustainable produce in alignment with our goal to reach Net Zero by 2040.

Our ethical standards are recognised by the ETI and we are an accredited Living Wage employer.
Learn more about apetito’s commitment to a more sustainable future.

We embrace inclusion, empowering individuals from diverse backgrounds.

Our commitment to making a real difference extends to customers, communities, and staff and we're on a mission to build an inclusive workplace where everyone reaches their full potential.