Company description

Farm to People is an online farmers market grocery delivery service in NYC. Our mission is to deliver fresh, high-quality food directly to customers' doors, making it easier and more convenient for people to access the best in local and organic produce, meat, seafood, and prepared meals.

Job description

The Senior Buyer leads our procurement team and sourcing strategy and plays a critical role in the company's ability to deliver high quality, cost effective products to our customers through their ability to effectively source items on a timely basis while maintaining appropriate inventory levels, at the lowest total cost consistent with product margin and forecast requirements.

Duties & Responsibilities   Strategic Sourcing & Savings

• Manage existing supplier relationships with excellent communication, and audit with occasional visits to build and maintain good relationships with them.
• Ensure that Farm to People’s pricing is competitive and a good value to customers
• Negotiate with suppliers for favorable prices, terms, quality, and delivery. 
• Develop strategies to constantly improve product quality.
• Create and maintain a product mix that represents the company brand: "Know your farmer, know your food”.
• Identify, test, and recommend prospective new products from current and new suppliers that fit with the company’s values and product standards.
• Work alongside members of the  management team to plan product rollout/quarterly sourcing strategy.
• Execute supplier engagement plans based on category strategy including crop planning with local and regional farmers on a seasonal basis.
• Continuously collect, update, and organize supplier information.
• When supplier shortages occur, find back up substitutions in order to avoid disappointing our customers.

   Product Ordering & Inventory Management

• Order and maintain appropriate levels of stock inventory by analyzing inventory turns for all products.
• Exercise full ownership and control of the (daily/weekly) cycle count process to ensure that inventory is counted and rotated accurately, and maintains a high quality of freshness for customers.
• Manage the inventory system to ensure settings, product description and photo, cost, and retail price are accurate for new products, and updated as needed for current products.
• Curate Farm Boxes with varying seasonal produce and grocery products on a weekly basis, and review box contents with marketing and management teams, making changes as needed, based on management approval, cost and content.

   Product Receiving & Invoice Management

• Work closely with the director of operations to ensure clear communication between sourcing and production.
• Coordinate product deliveries and conduct daily hands on reviews of quality/condition of incoming orders with the receiving team.
• Responsible for maintaining, updating, and reviewing the shorts & subs rate, quality, delivery, and all other supplier issues and resolutions and hitting established goals.
• Communicate appropriate packaging material and storage practices for all fresh, unpackaged food products with the marketing and warehouse teams.
• Provide timely and thorough feedback to growers regarding product quality. Document quality issues, shorts, invoice inaccuracies, and request credits/refunds in a timely manner with suppliers, the finance team to ensure they are redeemed.
• Approve and ensure all invoices are submitted to the finance team in a timely manner. 

   Forecasting & Financial Management

• Set and monitor pricing to ensure that financial and departmental targets and margins are met.
• Manage food loss/waste at 1% or less of COG.
• Forecast sales based on ERP 2 week rolling WoW and weekly YoY data.
• Forecasting levels of demand to meet customer needs, both for Farm Boxes and A La Carte items. 
• Provide regular assessments of the suppliers’ market, weekly for produce, monthly for all other product groups.
• Conduct regular product sell-through analysis to determine product viability and profitability, in order to manage future purchase planning and needed discontinuations.
• Present quarterly comps and work with management to set and update customer pricing.
• Participate in developing annual budgets for categories of responsibility.  These budgets provide the baseline for the purchase price variance (PPV) throughout the year and help in determining company profitability.
• Responsible for key financial analysis that supports the completion of critical reports including the monthly financial projection.

   Business Support

• Manage Junior Buyer/Administrative Support Associate. Hold them accountable and help them succeed in their work.
• Communicate new product facts and stories to the Marketing & Communications Team, and assist in creating relevant mission-driven online content.
• Manage Procurement for all marketing partnerships, events and assisting the kitchen team with finding great products.
• Other related assignments as necessary.

Position Requirements

• 3+ years of demonstrated expertise in these areas
• Ability to manage others with clear communication and detailed tasks.
• Proficiency with computers, Google Workplace or Microsoft Office
• Excellent spreadsheet skills
• Previous responsibility for product assessments, financial analysis, price negotiation, and cost modeling
• Understanding of local and sustainable farming, and in depth knowledge of seasonality in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic regions
• Demonstrated management of quality control, rapid inventory turn-over, and supply issues in the fresh food industry
• Exhibits great organizational skills, meticulous attention to detail, excellent oral and written communication, and time management skills

Preferred Experience and Character:

• Passion for local farming and feeding people
• Strong innovative and entrepreneurial talents
• Flair for negotiating, persuading and networking
• High level of process improvement, inquisitiveness, and willingness to drive business forward
• Ability to work well independently, but also be part of a larger team
• Possess a clear standard of personal integrity, business ethics, and values
• Professional and respectful character with both internal and external partners 
• Exhibit strong and creative problem solving abilities
• You absolutely must have a high tolerance for a loud and lively work environment and a passion for innovation. We are a startup, and we love what we do!

Compensation

this position is: salaried, varies DOE, $65,000.00 - $85,000.00

Application instructions

Deadline

May 19, 2023