Company description

Farm To People is a fast-growing online grocery delivery service specializing in sustainably-sourced, seasonal produce and artisanal foods. Our customers can subscribe to a curated Farm Box or can choose to shop à la carte. We deliver 5 days per week and are rapidly expanding in the NYC market. We have a vast and ever-changing array of fresh produce, meats, dairy, bakery, and pantry items.

Job description

The Procurement Manager 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 positivity and excellent, timely communication, and audit with occasional onsite visits, when feasible, 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, and drive suppliers to continuously improve the value they deliver to the company.
• 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.
• Assess, manage, mitigate and avoid risk throughout the supply chain to ensure the company is considering all elements that can impact our source of supply and competitive advantage.
• Continuously collect, update, and organize supplier Information in the shared Drive.
• When supplier shortages occur, this role is responsible for finding 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 in your range.
• Exercise full ownership and control of the (daily/weekly) cycle count process to ensure that inventory is counted and rotated accurately, and is delivered with and maintains a high quality of freshness for customers.
• Manage the inventory (ERP) 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.

• Budget purchasing costs for Farm Boxes and A La Carte food items based on projected sales.

   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 Cost of Goods.
• Forecast sales based on 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. 
• 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.

Position Requirements

• 3+ years of demonstrated expertise in these areas
• 2+ years experience with ERP systems or similar, ERPNext a plus
• Ability to manage others with clear communication and detailed tasks.
• Excellent intermediate to advanced spreadsheet skills
• 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
• 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, 75k-100k

Application instructions

Deadline

no deadline