Buying Manager - Fashion Stationery

We are delighted to share that a unique opportunity has arisen for a Buying Manager on our exciting Fashion Stationery department.

The successful candidate will be responsible for leading the buying team.  Developing, sourcing and buying great quality, sustainably focussed products at the best price. 

This role would suit an Experienced Buyer with a strong, commercial buying & negotiation background with product development skills in a high trend driven area and sourcing.

Leading the Fashion Stationery team alongside the Merchandise Planning Manager – covering Paperchase, Kids Stationery and Core Notebooks.

• Lead, develop and implement the Fashion stationery strategy to meet category & customer objectives
• Work collaboratively with Design, Technical & insight teams to develop & brief new products, packaging & initiatives to give Tesco a point of differentiation vs the competition.
• Conduct competitor benchmarking, visiting stores/websites to understand how my range compares & identifying gaps / opportunities
• Review existing supplier performance & identify potential new suppliers & grow joint capability in a sustainable way.
• Lead the negotiation of departmental supplier terms agreements (incl.returns), improving the trading position.
• Support category merchandising colleagues to develop a trade plan that is best in class and appeals to our customers.
• Work with suppliers, International Sourcing & Technical team to ensure product quality and ethical first is achieved and maintained.
• Manage category costs & ensuring the price basket is managed so we are the right price for customers & competitive in the market whilst delivering the budget margin.
• Ensure terms and commercial income is loaded and invoiced correctly & on time.
• Develop and lead a high performing team, giving them clear objectives to be their best
• Work with supply chain to deliver best route to market, improve availability, reduce waste and understand MOQ impacts.
• Give, ask for and action feedback.
• Have a personal development plan for my behavioural and technical needs.
• I manage & conduct work activities in such a way as to ensure the safety, health & welfare at work of all colleagues & customers.
• Following our Business Code of Conduct and always acting with integrity and due diligence

Skills relevant to this role

• Strong product development & attention to detail
• Influencing and stakeholder management
• Team leadership & development
• Good communication skills
• High value negotiation
• Presentation to all levels – AB to MD
• Data analysis and numeracy (MS Excel)
• Supplier Management
• Critical path management
• Understand and interpret market conditions & future trends
• Self motivated with endless enthusiasm & passion

Key people and teams I work with in and outside of Tesco:

Design team, Sourcing Manager, Technical Manager, Merchandise Planning Manager, Customer Insight team, Suppliers (incl. artwork agencies), trade planning teams, Retail Media, Tesco business services, finance, brand team, marketing.

People, budgets and other resources I am accountable for in my job:

Department delivery of budget for sales and margin.

Team of Buying Manager & assistant buyers

Area market out performance (Value, Volume & Share)

Experience relevant for this job:

Commercial buying & negotiation experience

Product development in a high trend driven area and sourcing.

Report preparation and analysis

Leading and developing teams

#LI - EF1

#LI - Hybrid

We’re all about the little helps. That’s why we give our wonderful colleagues bags of benefits. Including wellbeing services, an award-winning pension scheme and much, much more, our colleague reward package keeps on giving. And helps make every day a little better for you and your family. These include but are not limited to:

• Annual bonus scheme of up to 20% of base salary
• Holiday starting at 25 days plus a personal day (plus Bank holidays)
• Buy holiday salary sacrifice scheme (for salaried roles)
• Private medical insurance
• Retirement savings plan - save between 4% and 7.5% and Tesco will match your contribution
• Life Assurance - 5 x contractual pay
• 26 weeks maternity and adoption leave (after 1 years’ service) at full pay, followed by 13 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay or Statutory Adoption Pay, we also offer 4 weeks fully paid paternity leave
• The right to request flexible working from your first day with us
• Free 24/7 virtual GP service, Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for you and your family, free access to a range of experts to support your mental wellbeing
• A Colleague Clubcard for you & a family member (after 3 months of service), giving you access to lots of discounts in-store & online
• Great colleague deals and discounts, saving you money on everyday purchases, eating out and utility bills for the home
• Access to our colleague networks providing a space for colleagues to come together from a range of backgrounds. For more information about our colleague networks please click here
• Opportunities to get on - take advantage of our ongoing learning opportunities and award-winning training, to help you achieve the job and career you want

Click Here to read more about the full range of benefits we have available for our colleagues

Our vision at Tesco is to become every customer's favourite way to shop, whether they are at home or out on the move. Our core purpose is ‘Serving our customers, communities and planet a little better every day’. Serving means more than a transactional relationship with our customers. It means acting as a responsible and sustainable business for all stakeholders, for the communities we are part of and for the planet.

We are proud to have an inclusive culture at Tesco where everyone truly feels able to be themselves. At Tesco, we not only celebrate diversity, but recognise the value and opportunity it brings. We're committed to creating a workplace where differences are valued, and make sure that all colleagues are given the same opportunities. We’re proud to have been accredited Disability Confident Leader and we’re committed to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process. For further information on the accessibility support we can offer, please click here.

We’re a big business and we can offer a range of diverse full-time & part-time working patterns across our many business areas, which means that we can find something that works for you.  We work in a more blended pattern - combining office and remote working.  Our offices will continue to be where we connect, collaborate and innovate.  If you are applying internally, please speak to the Hiring Manager about how this can work for you - Everyone is welcome at Tesco.