Reading
Senior Buyer - Ingredients & Packaging Procurement \n Location: Berkshire \n Food Manufacturing - Multi-Site - High-Impact FMCG Environment \n Salary: £45-50,000 + benefits + career opportunities + CPD (CIPS) \n A highly respected and rapidly evolving UK food manufacturing business is seeking an exceptional Buyer to take ownership of strategically critical procurement categories across ingredients and packaging (approximately £20m portfolio) within a fast-paced FMCG manufacturing environment. \n The organisation operates within a dynamic food manufacturing environment supplying both retail and B2B channels, where procurement plays a central role in protecting margin, maintaining continuity of supply, driving innovation, and supporting wider commercial performance. \n This is not a transactional buying role. \n It requires a commercially astute, strategically minded procurement professional capable of operating across supplier markets, manufacturing operations, finance, planning, technical, NPD, and commercial teams to deliver measurable business impact. \n The Opportunity \n\n • Develop and execute category strategies aligned to wider business objectives\n, • Manage supplier performance, cost control, and security of supply across critical spend areas\n, • Operate confidently within volatile commodity and ingredient markets\n, • Lead commercial negotiations with both UK and international suppliers\n, • Identify opportunities for value creation beyond simple cost reduction\n, • Support working capital and inventory optimisation initiatives\n, • Drive supplier innovation into the wider business\n, • Partner closely with operational stakeholders to support service, production, and customer requirements\n, • Build robust procurement governance whilst maintaining pace and agility\n, • The role requires someone capable of balancing strategic thinking with operational execution.\n\n Key Areas of Responsibility \n Strategic Procurement & Category Management \n\n • Develop robust procurement category strategies across allocated areas of spend\n, • Create short, medium, and long-term sourcing plans aligned to business growth and operational requirements\n, • Continuously analyse supplier markets, commodity movements, inflationary pressures, & broader market dynamics\n, • Identify opportunities to reduce total cost of ownership whilst protecting quality and service\n, • Lead strategic sourcing activity including tendering, benchmarking, supplier rationalisation, and contract negotiations\n, • Deliver procurement savings, value improvement initiatives, and margin enhancement opportunities\n, • Build contingency planning and mitigation strategies for supply chain risk\n, • Ensure continuity of supply across critical operational categories\n, • Support procurement transformation and continuous improvement initiatives\n\n Supplier Management & Commercial Leadership \n\n • Build strong strategic relationships with key suppliers and manufacturing partners\n, • Lead supplier negotiations\n, • Conduct supplier performance reviews and drive accountability through structured KPIs\n, • Introduce joint business planning approaches with strategically important suppliers\n, • Drive supplier-led innovation into the business\n, • Challenge underperformance and implement corrective action where required\n, • Collaborate with suppliers on cost engineering and value optimisation initiatives\n\n Operational & Cross-Functional Partnership \n\n • Work closely with manufacturing, planning, technical, finance, commercial, and NPD functions to support business objectives\n, • Support service continuity and minimise operational disruption through proactive supplier and inventory management\n, • Participate in business-critical operational and supply chain meetings\n, • Contribute to working capital reduction initiatives\n, • Ensure procurement decisions balance commercial objectives with operational realities\n, • Support launch activity, customer requirements, and business growth initiatives\n\n Market Intelligence & Risk Management \n\n • Monitor commodity and ingredient markets continuously\n, • Forecast pricing movements and supplier market trends\n, • Assess geopolitical, agricultural, economic, and supply chain risks\n, • Provide commercial insight and market intelligence to internal stakeholders\n, • Support budget planning and forecasting activity with accurate procurement analysis\n, • Develop proactive risk mitigation strategies across categories\n\n The Candidate \n\n • Degree educated and a minimum of CIPS Level 3 or 4\n, • This role requires an experienced FMCG procurement professional with strong food manufacturing or FMCG exposure\n, • Progressive procurement and category management experience within FMCG manufacturing\n, • Experience purchasing ingredients, raw materials, commodities, and packaging\n, • Experience operating within food manufacturing or complex manufacturing supply chains\n, • Strong negotiation capability across supplier relationships\n, • Excellent commercial acumen and analytical capability\n, • Experience managing volatile commodity-driven categories\n, • Strong stakeholder engagement and influencing skills\n, • The ability to operate with pace, resilience, and accountability\n, • A highly collaborative approach combined with the confidence to challenge constructively\n, • Strong understanding of procurement governance, supplier management, and category strategy\n, • The ability to balance strategic thinking with operational responsiveness\n\n Personal Attributes \n\n • Commercially sharp and analytically minded\n, • Proactive and solutions focused\n, • Comfortable operating within fast-moving manufacturing environments\n, • Highly organised with strong attention to detail\n, • Confident influencing cross-functional stakeholders\n, • Capable of managing competing priorities effectively\n, • Collaborative whilst able to challenge appropriately\n, • Driven to continuously improve processes, performance, and outcomes\n, • Resilient under pressure and calm within operationally demanding situations\n\n Why This Opportunity? \n\n • Significant exposure across the wider business\n, • The opportunity to influence strategic procurement direction\n, • Ownership of commercially important categories\n, • A collaborative and fast-paced FMCG environment\n, • Strong long-term career development potential\n, • The ability to make a visible and measurable impact\n
