Assistant Buyer - Building

About the role

Assistant Buyer - Building

Permanent

Up to £45,000 + Bonus + Pension + BUPA + ShareSave + 6.6 weeks holiday + Hybrid Working (3 days per week in the office)

Southampton, Store Support Office

We believe anyone can improve their home to make life better. From our Southampton Store Support office (SSO) we equip our stores, our people, and our whole business with everything it takes to help our millions of customers create a home they'll love. Join us as an Assistant Buyer and you'll be a big part of this.

Key responsibilities

As an Assistant Buyer you will work with the Buyer to create and deliver an inspirational product range that meets the needs of our customers. Driving sales, margin, and market share across all channels, delivering vendor contributions, rebate, and retail price index targets through strong vendor partnerships. In this position, you will be responsible for the performance of specific subcategories and the relevant vendor relationships.

Building as a category is right at the heart of what we do, and this role plays a critical part in delivering to our customers great products in an area we are known for.

Your responsibilities will include:

1. Work alongside the Buyer to develop and implement a category proposition that meets our customer needs, identifying opportunities and mitigating risk, whilst delivering against sales, margin, and market share targets.
2. Support the sourcing and development of a compelling product range, through developing relationships with new and existing vendors, which reflect the category strategy.
3. Work alongside the Offer & Sourcing (O&S) team to shape and develop an own label proposition that meets the needs of our customers and market.
4. Support the buying process, with an awareness of impact on cross-functional teams, allowing for flexibility adhering to a critical path, to ensure stock is ordered and delivered on time.
5. With the Buyer, support end-to-end vendor strategy management including contract and cost price negotiation, delivery of vendor contributions, and annual performance review.
6. Gather insights to support the creation of the category pricing hierarchy in line with framework principles, supporting the Buying Assistant with inputs into the Minderest comparison tool.

Required skills & experience

To deliver this role you will have experience in:

1. Previous experience of sourcing and buying product ranges.
2. Ability to understand customer insights and market trends.
3. Experience in vendor management and contract negotiation.
4. Experience of managing projects and holding stakeholders to account.
5. Intermediate Microsoft Office skills, in particular Excel and PowerPoint.

What's in it for me?

As part of a great team, you'll be valued for who you are. We're committed to making B&Q more diverse and representative of the communities we serve, where everyone can feel they belong and have equal opportunities. You will have access to a range of networks that represent our colleagues and allies and help us to continue to put diversity and inclusion at the heart of our business.

We also recognise that wellness means different things to different people, and we want to help colleagues be at their best and feel well by offering a range of benefits to help you. As well as a competitive salary, our benefits package includes an award-winning pension scheme, bonus, ShareSave options, 6.6 weeks holiday, payroll giving, an Employee Assistance Programme, shopping discounts, colleague wellbeing benefits, and lots more!

So we can support you during the application or interview process, please contact recruitment@b-and-q.co.uk for any recruitment adjustments.