Buying Manager _Furniture _Homecentre

Landmark Group; Dubai; On-site; AED 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Landmark Group in Dubai, UAE is seeking a Buying Manager for Homecentre (Furniture). Responsible for overall business management of the furniture category, developing and implementing business plans to maximize sales and profits.

Key duties include category growth, merchandise planning, vendor management, and leading a team. The role requires strong negotiation, budgeting, and market research skills to stay ahead of competition.

Qualifications

• Postgraduate or graduate with 8+ years in retail.
• Experience in category management and merchandising.
• Strong vendor negotiation and budgeting skills.

Responsibilities

• Drive category growth and profitability by developing category business plans.
• Prepare annual merchandise plans and monitor adherence to financial plans.
• Guide category design and quality in collaboration with Design Head.
• Create and manage vendor base, negotiate terms, and ensure on-time delivery.
• Lead recruitment and performance management for the team.
• Acquire market intelligence and map competition prices and products.

Skills

Vendor management

Negotiation

Merchandise planning

Category management

Budgeting

Stock management

People management

Market research

Education

Graduate degree

Postgraduate degree

Job description

Job Title:: Buying Manager _ FRN _Homecentre

Location: Dubai, UAE

Job Description

Overall business management of assigned product category/department (Furniture) and will ensure the development, implementation and management of the business plans to maximize sales and profits

Responsibilities for Internal Candidates

1. Category Growth and Profitability

• Drive sales from the assigned category by developing comprehensive category business plans
• Drive and monitor gross margins for the category and ensure alignment with the organization's position, business plan and budgets.

2. Category Merchandise Planning

• Prepare annual plans for the assigned category and provide inputs to the Merchandising Development and Buying Head to assist in creation of overall merchandizing budget
• Study trends from historical data around product category sales and market research to assist in the overall planning process
• Ensure adherence to financial plan in all key areas - sales, markdowns, margin & average inventory
• Discuss, decide and freeze the merchandise plans (pricing, promotion, assortment etc.) for the category with the Merchandise Planning department
• Ensure effective in season management across territories (stock balancing, markdown management, stock analysis, stock vs sales performance)

3. Category Design and Quality

• Ensure optimum utilization of customer research information to guide category management decisions, including decisions on the introduction of new products, product assortment, shelf layout, promotion and pricing of products in the store
• Formulate design and development plan in consultation with the Design Head with specifications on product features, functions, packaging and resource requirement across categories
• Ensure all design and development activities are carried out within budget
• Ensure the merchandise procured and received meets the quality standards

4. Order and Vendor Management

• Create an adequate vendor base for the organization through active scouting and negotiation / renegotiation
• Maintain relationships with key vendors who are critical for the long term success of the business
• Review the financial and credit services agreement with the key vendors in order to maximize profit and positively contribute to cash flow
• Determine buying requirements and formulate buying plan and budget for the assigned category
• Monitor Orders based on the buying plan and follow-up to ensure merchandise delivery as per the plan based on the agreed service level agreement
• Pursue cost reduction measures through centralized bulk buying and/ or selecting appropriate vendor mix, scanning the environment for benchmarks and constantly improving the purchase process

5. People Management

• Manage and support recruitment
• Monitor team development and facilitate complaint resolution
• Set KRA's for direct reports and conduct performance appraisal
• Oversee staff deployment and drive motivation levels of the direct reportees.

6. Competition Research

• Acquire market intelligence through various sources & analyze trends which may impact our business.
• Map competition prices / products and provide qualitative inputs to the business

Qualifications for Internal Candidates

Post graduate or Graduate, 10-15 years' relevant experience of which at least 8+ years should have been in the retail industry.