Procurement Specialist - Kitchens

Wickes; Watford; Hybrid; GBP 42,000 - 64,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Private medical

Pension

Colleague discount

Discount platform

Job summary

Wickes in Watford is looking for an experienced Procurement Specialist to join our Kitchens team. You will develop strong supplier relationships and drive cost optimisation across sourcing, contracts and onboarding.

The role involves end-to-end procurement, cross-functional collaboration with finance, operations and legal, and travel within Europe and the UK. We offer a competitive bonus, private medical cover and pension, plus employee discounts.

Qualifications

• Experience in a procurement role, preferably in kitchens or related category.
• Strong supplier management and negotiation skills.
• Understanding of budgeting and financial principles.

Responsibilities

• Identify and evaluate suppliers based on quality, price, reliability and capacity.
• Negotiate and manage supplier contracts and renewals.
• Identify cost-savings opportunities through strategic sourcing and process improvements.
• Oversee supplier onboarding and offboarding to ensure smooth transitions.
• Manage end-to-end procurement cycle from requisition to delivery and payment.
• Assess and mitigate procurement risks and ensure compliance with regulations.

Skills

Supplier relationships

Negotiation

Strategic sourcing

Budgeting

Communication

Project management

Education

Bachelor's degree in relevant field

Tools

ERP systems

MS Excel

Job description

We’re looking for an experienced Procurement Specialist to join our Kitchens team.

You’ll be responsible for developing and maintaining strong relationships with key suppliers as well as constantly looking for potential areas of continuous improvement and cost optimisation.

The role will involve identifying, selecting, and managing suppliers to ensure they meet the organisation's needs in terms of quality, cost, delivery, and service.

As Procurement Specialist, you’ll have the ability to work collaboratively across a wide array of internal and external stakeholders in order to deliver optimal results.

There will be some travel in Europe and the UK within the role.

What you’ll be doing:

Sourcing and Supplier Management:

• Identifying and evaluating potential suppliers based on quality, price, reliability, and capacity.
• Developing and maintaining strong relationships with key suppliers.
• Monitoring supplier performance and addressing any issues or concerns and conducting supplier reviews

Contract Management:

• Negotiating and managing supplier contracts and agreements, ensuring contract compliance and adherence to terms and conditions.
• Monitoring contract renewals and renegotiations.

Continuous Improvement and Cost Optimisation:

• Identifying opportunities for cost savings through strategic sourcing and negotiation.
• Collaborating with suppliers to implement process improvements.
• Driving innovation and collaboration with suppliers.

Supplier Onboarding and Offboarding:

• Managing the supplier onboarding process, including due diligence and qualification.
• Overseeing the supplier offboarding process, ensuring a smooth transition.

Procurement Process:

• Managing the entire procurement cycle, from requisition to delivery and payment.
• Full understanding of end to to end logistics to ensure that all manufacturing and shipping efficiencies are optimised

Compliance and Risk Management:

• Identifying and assessing potential risks associated with suppliers and developing and implementing risk mitigation strategies and adhering to ethical sourcing practices
• Ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and industry standards
• Identifying and mitigating potential risks associated with procurement activities.

Collaboration and Communication

• Working closely with internal stakeholders, commercial, supply chain, finance, operations, and legal teams as well as external suppliers

What we’re looking for:

A Procurement Specialist with demonstrable experience in a similar role. You’ll ideally have experience within the kitchens sector or a very similar category. As well as the technical skills required to undertake the role you’ll have excellent communication, time management and organisational skills with strong understanding of financial principles and budgeting. Ideally the successful candidate will be educated to degree level with a relevant professional qualification.

What can we offer you?

You’ll be supported with fantastic learning and development and have the opportunity to grow and develop your career with us.

We’ll also equip you with a benefits package that includes:

• Competitive bonus
• Save-as-you-earn scheme
• Private Medical and Life Assurance
• Enhanced contributory pension scheme
• Colleague discount
• Discount platform including savings and cash back at numerous retailers, savings on gym membership, cycle to work scheme

Our widely recognised wellbeing strategy is something we’re proud of at Wickes. As part of this, we offer a range of health and wellbeing benefits and support, including an Employee Assistance Programme, financial education & loans, and access to parental, menopause and fertility support.

You’ll work from our Support Centre in Watford, where our Commercial team are based, along with our other support functions. We recognise the value of bringing our teams together to collaborate, support each other and build on our amazing culture. We are also encouraging our teams to work flexibly, with a blend of remote / office working.

About Us:

Wickes is a multi-channel retailer operating in the home improvement market. With 50 years in industry, Wickes now generates revenue in excess of £1.6bn across 230 stores delivered by 8,000+ colleagues.

But it is the Wickes’ culture that is considered its best kept secret; it’s a collaborative, down to earth, fun and inclusive environment where people feel part of a winning team. All our colleagues come from different backgrounds, but what we all have in common is a determination to succeed and a passion for being the best we can be. If that sounds like you, we’ll make you feel right at home.

We aim to create an inclusive workplace with colleagues’ wellbeing at the heart of everything we do.

We’re a Disability Confident Employer and committed to building a diverse workforce that reflects the communities we serve. We welcome applications from disabled people and are committed to providing an accessible recruitment process and workplace for everyone. If you require any support or reasonable adjustments, please let us know here.