Trading Manager

Overview

Permanent – Buying Manager, Belfast. Join Musgrave:
Where Innovation Meets Heritage, and People Drive Change. Our people are the heart of our business, and we aim to be the best place to work, grow and thrive.

We have an opportunity for a Trading Manager to join our Trading team. Our buying/trading teams are responsible for buying the right products for our customers at the right price, analysing data and negotiating with suppliers to drive sales and profit for Musgrave and our retail partners. They work closely with internal stakeholders in Marketing, Sales, Own Brand Development and Supply Chain to ensure the right product range is available, delivering competitive promotions and innovating to meet customer needs and upcoming trends.

The role sits within the Growing Good Business Agenda and requires leading the development and implementation of an effective range strategy for the portfolio, grounded in the overall trading strategy and consumer insight, delivered through engaging with customers and suppliers and leading cross-functional project teams including merchandising, product development, marketing, sales, HR, store development and finance.

What You"ll Be Doing

• Developing and implementing an effective range strategy for the assigned portfolio, including management of the portfolio product range and category plans to reflect market and consumer trends and align with the company’s brand position and profit objectives.
• Reviewing product range regularly based on best-practice category management principles and input from market and consumer research, retailer, marketing and sales, and supplier innovations.
• Ensuring full understanding, buy-in and implementation of the category strategy and plans through engagement with Sales, Marketing, Store Design, HR, Supply Chain, Suppliers and Retailers to optimise sales effectiveness and profitability.
• Developing seasonal supply plans to meet anticipated demand uplifts and downturns.
• Assessing customer loyalty issues and identifying ways to increase loyalty in line with Musgrave’s expectations, working with Sales and other stakeholders.

Developing annual plans and budgets based on defined strategy:

• Development of Sales, Margin, and Supplier Income targets for the coming year by Supplier and Article Group.
• Preparation and delivery of annual Buying Plan outlining income strategy and actions to achieve all financial targets, OB and Range Review plans.
• Quarterly review of budget and business plan with Category Manager.

Manage the sourcing and introduction of Own Brand product in conjunction with the product development teams to enhance margins and provide consumers with competitive value-for-money offers:

• Identifying Own Brand product gaps and opportunities based on actual versus targeted participation levels.
• Developing products from concept through to commercial launch in conjunction with cross-functional teams.
• Agreeing appropriate pricing points to optimise revenue and margin performance.
• Monitoring Own Brand product performance and identifying value engineering opportunities to increase revenues and margins.

Negotiate the total purchase cost of products for Musgrave and its customers:

• Monitoring the performance of all products in terms of volume, margin contribution and market share and taking appropriate steps to achieve category targets.
• Analyzing supplier cost base to ensure optimum purchase prices are achieved.
• Negotiating purchase price, supply terms and conditions and supplier income in line with Musgrave policies and guidelines.
• Balancing the mix of cost price, discounts, bonuses, rebates, special offers and promotional activity to achieve the Brand positioning of a quality value-for-money consumer offer.
• Leveraging the overall buying power of the Musgrave Group in all negotiations.
• Developing detailed promotional strategies and plans to optimise revenue and margin opportunities.
• Identifying income opportunities and achieving income targets.

Set wholesale and retail selling prices and monitor portfolio and product margins to ensure profitability objectives for both the company and customers are met:

• Analyzing competitor pricing and promotional activity to…