Buying & Merchandising

The role of the Buying Assistant is to provide comprehensive support to the Fresh Food Buying team through working closely with the Assistant Buyer and Buyer to drive commercial performance and enhance the customer experience.

The Buying Assistant will help to ensure the smooth running of the Buying Office, across all channels (Store, Online & Regional Sites), and both operational models (Own Buy and Concession).

This role is all about reporting and analysing, so a keen interest in figures is essential. You will assist in the production of weekly and ad-hoc reporting for stakeholders across the business, assess purchase order requests from the buying team and key price changes for the Sale periods. You will also work with the Replenishment Analyst to ensure lines are set up for replenishment correctly.

As an Assistant Merchandiser, you will support the Merchandiser with effectively planning and trading across the division. You will be responsible for initiating and proposing actions through analysis of brand, category or attribute trading patterns in order to deliver the KPI’s.

You will be responsible for achieving the divisional KPI’s including sales, margin and open to buy (OTB) levels. Working closely with internal teams across Buying, Retail, Distribution and our external vendors, you will manage the range over its lifecycle, communicating opportunities and risks to internal stakeholders.

Our Demand Planning function are tasked with reviewing and optimising system driven forecasts through statistical analysis, data modelling and other demand influencing factors to drive forecast accuracy.

You will manage the demand signal across the category, for the purposes of driving the Supply Chain and supporting gross sales planning and execution. You will deliver continuous improvements to business planning accuracy, enhancing sales performance and optimise inventory holdings.