Senior Buyer – Spirits, Ready to Drink and Tobacco

Ocado Retail; Hatfield; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

Ocado Retail is seeking a Senior Buyer for Spirits, Ready to Drink, and Tobacco. This role involves managing the category P&L, optimizing product range, and driving sales growth through data analysis and supplier negotiations. Join a dynamic team focused on enhancing customer experience and expanding product offerings.

Benefits

Private medical insurance

Annual bonus scheme

Discounts on Ocado and M&S products

26 days holiday plus 8 flexible bank holidays

Qualifications

• Significant retail buying experience required.
• Experience with large branded suppliers preferred.
• Ability to analyze complex data sets.

Responsibilities

• Manage the category P&L and deliver against KPIs.
• Plan and deliver trade promotions and events.
• Negotiate with suppliers to deliver market-leading plans.

Skills

Negotiation skills

Commercial acumen

Leadership capability

Data analysis

Education

WSET level 2 or above in Spirits

Tools

Excel

Job description

Senior Buyer – Spirits, Ready to Drink and Tobacco

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Senior Buyer – Spirits, Ready to Drink and Tobacco

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Permanent

Hatfield (Hybrid working -3 days in the office Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)

40 hours

Friday 30th May 2025

About Us

Our mission is to deliver joy in every shop, through unbeatable choice, unrivalled service and reassuringly good value.

Contract type: Permanent

Location: Hatfield (Hybrid working -3 days in the office Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)

Working hours per week: 40 hours

Level: Senior

Application closing date: Friday 30th May 2025

About Us

Our mission is to deliver joy in every shop, through unbeatable choice, unrivalled service and reassuringly good value.

We’re Ocado Retail, a market-leading, joint venture between Ocado Group and M&S and the world’s largest dedicated online supermarket ocado.com. Not only is Ocado.com the only place to shop a full range of M&S food online, it’s also the home to the widest online supermarket range in the UK and champion of small, independent brands. We’re also the brains behind Zoom by Ocado, our same-day grocery delivery service.

About The Team And The Role

As a Senior Buyer, you will have accountability for a specified category within the commercial buying team. You will be responsible for Buying ensuring your supply base and the product range is optimised, proactively using data and analysis to maximise performance to and drive sales, profitability and share growth to support the growth to to support the overall Ocado Retail strategy and goals.

Spirits, Ready to Drink and Tobacco is a dynamic category that is currently performing ahead of the market, and we’re looking for a senior buyer to raise the bar even further. It’s a heavily branded area where building a strong trade plan is vital and has loads of space for creativity, be that cocktails trends, securing exclusive launches or supporting small and upcoming suppliers. This role sits in our BWS Buying team where our vision is to go beyond the bottle to provide an excellent shopper experience to help our customers find the right drink for every occasion – we are a fast paced & proactive team where we value collaboration and enjoyment of the fantastic category we operate in

What You’ll Do

• Manage the category P&L and deliver against KPIs
• Complete category reviews to refine range and align to the business and category strategy
• Plan and deliver trade, promotions and events plan
• Identify and deliver opportunities to drive customer penetration
• Identify and deliver opportunities to improve all-in margin, negotiate with suppliers to deliver savings
• Negotiate with suppliers to agree and deliver market-leading plans aligned to the customer plan and category strategy.
• Analyse and assess performance issues and opportunities using data and reporting tools, devise and implement solutions
• Identify, analyse and source first-to-market / Ocado exclusive product innovation using customer, market and supplier insights to guide decision making
• Ensure range changes are aligned to the category and business strategy
• Work closely with supply chain colleagues and the supplier base to ensure best in class availability
• Work closely with our e-comm team to deliver merchandising solutions for the category and customer
• Collaborate with the M&S team under the JV terms
• Identify and create plans to mitigate potential issues / events that may impact supply
• Adhering to all Ocado policies, storage and handover protocols and successfully completing all of your training so that you have zero GSCOP breaches. Ensuring all agreements are recorded in writing, reporting GSCOP complaints to Legal within 48 hours of receipt
• Following our Business Code of Conduct and always acting with integrity and due diligence
  
  

Who You Are

• Significant retail buying experience and existing Senior Buyer experience required, ideally with large branded suppliers
• Excited about working in retail and food
• Proficient in Excel, with prior experience working with customer insights, transactional or financial data
• Leadership capability/people management
• Influencing and stakeholder management
• Very strong negotiation skills and commercial acumen
• Project management capability
• Able to analyse complex sets of data
• Ideal experience is a background of buying products with Duty taxes
• Ideal experience would be WSET level 2 or above in Spirits
  
  

What’s In It For You

By joining Ocado Retail you’ll have the chance to experience life at the world’s largest online retailer, work with an amazing bunch of people who challenge what’s possible each day and grow your skills and career in online retail.

If that’s not enough to tempt you, you’ll also get access to loads of great benefits to sweeten the deal. Here’s a taste of what we offer:

Health & Wellbeing: Private medical insurance with option to add your family, Digital GP appointments, market leading family policies, mental health support, discounted gym memberships, dental insurance and more.

Spend & Save: Annual bonus scheme split between personal and business objectives, recognition with reward platform, up to 7% matched pension contributions, 15% Ocado discount, 20% M&S discount, free breakfast everyday in the office, electric vehicle leasing scheme and free shuttle bus from Hatfield station to the office.

Never miss the moments that matter: Blended/Hybrid working, 26 days holiday plus 8 flexible bank holidays , options to buy extra holiday, 2 weeks work from anywhere and lifestyle break opportunities.

Our Hiring Process

Lucky for us, we get loads of great applications and we really appreciate that so many people put the time and effort in to apply. To recognise that, we treat all applications respectfully and fairly. So, if yours stands out, you’ll follow our standard hiring process – one of our Talent Partners will talk you through this in an initial call.

Everyone’s welcome

We’re an equal opportunities employer. That means that we make sure all potential colleagues are treated fairly and equally. If you require reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know on the application form

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Mid-Senior level

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Purchasing and Supply Chain

• Industries

  Retail

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