Direct Sourcing Manager

Musgrave is one of the Europe’s most successful family-owned businesses with a 140-year heritage in food and brand innovation, supporting communities across the island of Ireland and Spain. Every day we feed one-in-three people in Ireland through 11 market leading food and beverage brands that include SuperValu, Centra, Frank and Honest and Musgrave Market Place. We support thousands of retail and foodservice family businesses who live and work in the heart of the communities they serve. We are committed to becoming the most trusted and sustainable business in Ireland and we are making changes across the company to make sure that happens. We want to make a positive impact on the world, and we will support our suppliers and customers to make a difference too. We are seeking an Direct Sourcing Manager to join the team on a 18 month contract.

As part of the ‘Fuelling the Future’ programme, Musgrave is delivering a more compelling and profitable propositions, by buying at lowest price and having the best multi-channel route to market. This programme has been established to reset to deliver even better outcomes. This is also a significant business change programme is shaping our future and setting foundations for delivery through people, ways of working and tools.

We have an opportunity for a ‘Direct Sourcing Manager’ to join our established team to develop and implement Musgrave IOI lowest cost direct sourcing of agreed brands or product categories. This role will work with the Programme team, Category Managers, Trading Managers and Supply Chain teams across IOI.

The key responsibilities of the role are (not limited to):

• Execute Direct Sourcing strategy:
• Prioritise and sequence brands and categories to pursue direct sourcing.
• Establish engagement plan with brands, distributors and supply chain.
• Engage and collaborate with Brand Owners on Musgrave as right route to market.
• Assess shift and optimisation of activity to shape commercial requirements.
• Optimize sourcing procedures to maximise efficiency and profit.
• Assess risk and implement risk mitigation strategy.
• Range and volume strategy
• Assess commercial range performance and opportunities across all IOI businesses.
• Determine opportunities optimise SKUs and consolidate scale.
• Ensure that we are leveraging Musgrave IOI buying power effectively.
• Supply chain and Supplier
• Engage Supply Chain and agree range, volume and lead-times.
• Engage brand owner on Musgrave as a compelling proposition and route to market
• Negotiate optimal discount with brand owner that delivers margin and business case.
• Implementation – with cross functional team and supplier
• Develop robust implementation plan with clear roles, responsibilities, and timelines.
• Deliver against this plan with clear communication and stakeholder management plan.
• Work cross functionally to ensure agreement of terms and methods implemented.
• Seek rounded feedback and insight.
• Measure and report successes and learnings, adjusting plan as required. The key success measures are:
• Strong commercial outcome delivery in Sales, Margin and Innovation through direct sourcing
• Seamless sourcing changeovers across suppliers and products
• Excellent Inbound service levels
• Right first-time administration and operations
• Frequent, quality, and effective customer engagement
• Quality of relationships developed cross functionally and with customers.

The successful candidate will have/be:

• Proven sourcing experience in the EU and Global Markets and track record of delivering exceptional results – strong commercial acumen.
• Understanding of inbound supply chain opportunities and barriers
• Understanding of Duty requirements for importing into Ireland
• Understanding of market trends and sound business judgement
• Strong Project management and leadership skills – Structured, organised, and methodical with a deadline focus
• Negotiation – Excellent negotiation skills including but not limited to the ability to actively listen, be agile, problem solve and create value.
• Analytical – Excellent analytical skills with the ability to collect, model and analyse data using various statistical and logical methods and techniques.
• Communication – Excellent interpersonal, presentation and influencing skills and an ability to interact at all levels of the organization.
• Planning – Ability to plan logically workloads and bring in cross functional support as and when required.
• Decision Making – Comes with solutions to problems being faced, internal or external. Provide multiple options but be clear on the recommendation and final outcome.
• University degree in Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Business, or relevant experience

Musgrave is an equal opportunities employer. We encourage applications from diverse candidates. If we can make any accommodations to enable you to be the best version of yourself during the interview, please let us know.

Musgrave operate a Work Smart hybrid working model where you can alternate your time between connecting and collaborating in the office and working remotely.