Purchasing Director

A UK division of a highly successful €3 billion European-wide organisation, our client is a name synonymous with the best in the industry.  A true market leader, they have a rich heritage and are one of the largest designers and manufacturers of caravans, motorhomes and campervans in the UK.  This formidable organisation has a multi-award winning range of products and has an enviable reputation for product excellence and vision together with an absolute commitment to the customer.

There is so much more that can now be achieved and growth and investment remains firmly on the agenda.  As such, we are now looking to appoint an outstanding Purchasing Director to lead a change agenda and initiate ‘game changing’ initiatives within this progressive organisation.

Responsibilities:

• This is a substantial leadership role where the incumbent must be able to deliver a high performance agenda, raise the bar and drive the business to maximise its potential.
• You will have full accountability for developing an outstanding, flexible and best in class purchasing function.
• Operating at part of the senior leadership team, you will have total responsibility for all direct and indirect purchasing activities for the UK organisation.
• Based at the organisation’s Head Office in Consett, North East, you will operate in both a hands on and strategic capacity in order to offer credible solutions to supply chain problems.
• You will lead best practice purchasing techniques focusing on all elements of sourcing, commercial negotiation, commodity trends, negotiation, contract/risk management and risk engineering etc.
• You will be required to formulate appropriate purchasing strategies and policies and lead long term supplier development, whilst introducing improvement programmes for key suppliers which focus on quality, delivery, cost and service.
• Acquire and maintain up to date knowledge of commodity trends, market conditions, price projections, supply disruption potential and any other conditions affecting supply, price or vending performance.
• To proactively move the business towards modern purchasing techniques and systems.
• To develop cost reduction/waste elimination strategies with key suppliers on an ongoing basis.

Person:

• This dynamic position requires an exceptional individual who enjoys a fast paced growth agenda and will relish the opportunity to develop their career within a market leading organisation.
• Of graduate calibre and/or CIPS qualified, you will relish the opportunity to tackle this highly autonomous and influential role.  You will have an outstanding track record of best practice purchasing, where you will have a clear understanding of the value of developing partnerships in a highly commercial situation.
• Your expertise therefore will have been gained within a progressive manufacturing environment where you will have been exposed to complexity in terms of products, categories and supply chain from a purchasing perspective. 
• As such, you may well have been working within the automotive, consumer goods, food & drink, engineering components, lighting sectors etc, where a high number of parts and complexity is part and parcel of everyday life.
• Credible, with significant drive and energy, you will be unafraid to change the mindset of those around you.  Additionally, you will act as a true champion of change, will possess the flair and ability to think outside the box and will have a passion for setting standards and implementing tangible change.
• You will enjoy an environment where the pace of change is rapid and will be expected to be comfortable managing major initiatives from scratch.  In addition you will ensure consistency of performance without stifling innovation and will possess the flair and ability to think outside of the box, to see the whole picture and to genuinely make things happen.

Interested? Please reply with full CV and current salary details. Candidates who fail to respond in this manner cannot be considered.

To apply, click 'apply now' below, and quote reference number 15/357

Due to the volume of applications we receive, we regret that it is not always possible to respond to every applicant personally, hence if you do not receive a response within a 3-week period then unfortunately we will not be progressing your application further on this occasion.