Contract Manufacturing Buyer

We’ve built our first ever innocent-owned factory, called ‘the blender’, however this role is working with our contract manufacturing suppliers to deliver everything we produce outside of our factory. We are on a really exciting mission. We want to deliver a roadmap of key exciting innovation which continues to take our brand to ‘more places’ and deliver more delicious fruit and veg to people in their diets by 2030. The capabilities we’re looking for often sit outside of our factory whether this be in packaging or product, it’s your job to find the best suppliers that fit in with our mission.

As Contract Manufacturing Buyer, you will either be based at the Blender or our head office in London, you will create your own magic by designing category strategies to select the right suppliers for our lovely NPD projects & existing portfolio of products. You will be conducting negotiations for key contracts, and building strong relationships to deliver great solutions from concept to delivery. You will be also able to demonstrate your stakeholder management skills by working cross-functionally with our extended supply-chain team and also the wider business with key interaction across marketing, project management and R&D teams based in the ‘the blender’ & London. The focus of this job is on the procurement of international partners who are able to deliver on our expectations bringing great products to market.

You’ll get:

• The chance to help us make tasty drinks go from concept to the shelf.

• Negotiating and managing big contracts within our supply chain.

• Further procurement leadership experience within your indirect team but also across the whole procurement team.

• The chance to partner with lots of brilliant people in different teams across Europe.

• If you don’t know already, you’ll quickly learn exactly how our drinks are made.

• A ‘blend’ of travelling to see suppliers, getting into the factories to see production lines, but also time in the office, building and delivering multiyear sourcing strategies.

You will have:

• At least 5 years of experience in contract manufacturing buying/sourcing

• Experience in Supply Chain

• Experience in New Product Development (NPD) Procurement – from concept to delivery

You also have:

• Negotiation is a second nature for you. You go out and push to get the best deal.

• Strong numerate and analytical skills – we work with lots of numbers and ensuring they’re correct is key.

• You need to have the ability to work through ambiguity whilst under pressure – you’ll be able to simplify ambiguous situations to solve problems. So, having a logical approach, whilst keeping the ‘bigger picture’ in mind, is a must.

• The ability to lead and influence stakeholders at all levels – you’ll need to be able to bring people on the journey with you, to ensure excellence management of suppliers and execution of our strategy and contracts.

• Excellent relationship building skills - we can’t do a great job without building strong relationships, so you need to be more honey than lemon when it comes to people.

• You will be based in Holland or London, but in close relationship with our HQ; you will also work and select a wide variety of suppliers, either local or global. Therefore, you need to be able to communicate effectively English.

• Strong communication - you’ll sometimes have to deliver difficult messages, so being clear and professional is essential.

• A proven track record in identifying and delivering improvements – We’re always looking to improve way we do things (even we’re not perfect) and you will need to be good at identifying improvements, analysing the key benefits/risks and getting buy-in from key stakeholders to ultimately deliver change.

If you think you have everything we're looking for and more, we would love to hear from you.