Experienced Trading Managers / Buyers (Food Retail) 

A.F. Blakemore & Son Ltd is the largest independent convenience store operator in the UK under the SPAR fascia with over 600 independent retailers plus over 300 company owned stores and over 7500 employees in total across all of their divisions in England and Wales. 

It's through their 'putting people first' philosophy, that they are able to successfully lead, compete and operate within the fast paced Convenience Retail Market. 

Position: Trading Manager / Buyer 
Location: Great Bridge, West Midlands or Talbot Green, South Wales 

About the Opportunity 
They have an exciting opportunity for a Trading Manager / Buyer to work at their Great Bridge or Talbot Green Trading Offices in the West Midlands. 

Key to the role will be negotiating across a broad range of local, national and global suppliers, whilst managing and developing supplier relationships. You will be delivering the sales and profit budgets, and marketing your own product categories through product promotion, new product development and SPAR brand. 

You will also be managing relationships with company owned stores operations team, and working collaboratively with the sales team who support (partner) their independent trade partners. 

You will be joining a dynamic business with ambitious growth plans. They are not your run of the mill retailer/ wholesaler, but one of the UK’s biggest private owned family business. This is a unique opportunity to work in the fast growing convenience channel, supporting 300 company owned SPAR stores and 700 independent SPAR retailers. 

About You: 
This is a fantastic opportunity that will suit someone from an experienced Trading or Buying background. This is an organisation with its feet firmly on the ground – looking for a likeminded individual. You will be a creative thinker capable of developing innovative solutions for the unique A.F. Blakemore business, who can generate solutions that are distinctive and can derive commercial advantage. 

You will have real drive to deliver results, and be tenacious and self-motivated, and will have real empathy with the issues which face A.F. Blakemore’s entrepreneurial customers, all of whom depend to a greater or lesser extent on the services which A.F. Blakemore provides. 

You will be an excellent communicator, with the ability to both listen well, and persuade and influence others at all levels within the organisation. You will be methodical and analytical, and able to get people to collaborate and work together. 

Education to degree level or equivalent is preferred but not essential. What is crucial however is that you are passionate about the role, and are looking to grasp an exciting opportunity to work within a unique business with a visionary trading strategy (trading proposition.) 

You may have experience of the following: Trading Manager, Buyer, Food Retail, Wholesale, Buying, Category Manager, FMCG, Junior Buyer, Purchasing, Purchaser, Retail Buying Manager, etc. 
This vacancy is being advertised by Easy Web Recruitment, the UK’s leading Online Recruitment Agency. The services advertised by Easy Web Recruitment are those of an employment agency. No terminology in this advert is intended to discriminate on the grounds of gender, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion, or belief, and we confirm that we will gladly accept all applications.