Buying (Food)

What does the scheme involve?

Bread, bacon, bananas… our buying team sources thousands of products. They handle multi-million pound budgets and are committed to buying the best. Rarely do quality and quantity go hand in hand like this.

Join this 18 month scheme and your first four months will be spent in store, to help you understand the diversity of our product ranges. From there you'll move to our London Store Support Centre, where you'll be responsible for a particular area early on - you may be buying pears in the produce category, or French wine in the beers, wines and spirits category. You'll need to understand your product lines and their target market inside out to guarantee success. Negotiation and influencing skills are critical, and you'll do a lot of learning on-the-job.

You'll learn about ranging, space accuracy and plannogramming, and study for an internal buying qualification too. You'll develop close working relationships with colleagues and suppliers, and may get to travel; whether it's to Kent or Kenya depends on what you're buying. Before the end of your scheme you'll spend a further two months in store to complete a buying-focused retail project which will enable you to understand how your role impacts store operations. You'll also develop an understanding of sales volumes, customer segments and price margins.

What are we looking for?

This is a fast-moving area. We are looking for motivated people who thrive on tough targets and are not afraid to make decisions at speed. You will need the versatility to adapt to changing environments and the resilience to negotiate effectively. We will also require you to have a minimum of 2.1 or above in any degree discipline.

What skills will you develop?

As well as an in-depth knowledge of your buying area, you'll also develop expertise in negotiation, learn how to influence people and get the chance to gain a buying qualification.

What are the benefits?

• £23k starting salary with excellent salary progression
• 22 days holiday
• 10% staff discount after six months
• Discretionary annual bonus
• Internally recognised buying qualification
• Exciting, competitive, target-driven environment
• Full accountability for a product area
• Relationship-building with leading suppliers, and some foreign travel (depending on your product areas)
• The ability to make decisions that affect every store in the business
• Responsibility for £1m + budgets