Buying Manager

at  WHSmith

At WHSmith our people are at the heart of everything we do. They are the ones that go the extra mile for our customers. The ones that enable our growth. That’s why our Trading team is passionate about creating an environment where people can be creative and trailblazing in order to do their best work. We now have an exciting opportunity for a Buying Manager to join our High Street Trading team at our Support Centre in Swindon.
The main purpose of a Buying Manager is to lead and drive the commercial agenda. You will have full accountability and an opportunity to shape the future of the business through your team of buyers.

• Developing and leading a high performing team – providing guidance and coaching to bring out the best in your people

• Complete P&L ownership of the budget for your category with a focus on net profitability. Budgets for sales/contribution/margin, costs, capex, income

• Understanding the total business strategy & your categories role within it. Ownership of annual trade / category plan process. Full involvement in origination, trialling and development of ‘3-year-plan’ ideas
• Review of longer trading outlook (6 months+), mitigation plans to hand (Plan B’s), and engagement with wider business on developing trends
• Managing your own category pricing including development of pricing elasticity trials where appropriate
• Managing detailed and complex trials and trials that cross beyond your own category, be the cross functional ‘go to’ for category/department
• Full ownership for department supplier income delivery & responsibility for reporting performance across business. Management of month-end processes
• Having a long-term supplier strategy in place covering annual deals, payment terms, cost prices, marketing spend and conduct regular grow/hold/decline reviews
• Engaging in and leadership of new store format development