Vibrant Foods
Category Buyer
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About Vibrant Foods
Vibrant Foods is one of Europe's largest South Asian food groups, bringing together a portfolio of well-established heritage brands, including East End, TRS, Fudco, Cofresh, and Everest. Headquartered in Watford, with three manufacturing facilities across the Midlands, the company is dedicated to creating authentic, flavour-led food experiences that celebrate South Asian heritage while meeting the growing demand for plant-based and vegetarian products.
The business combines a rich cultural legacy with a modern, growth-focused approach, supplying both retail and foodservice markets across the UK and internationally. Its purpose is to create adventures in flavour that bring people together by connecting consumers with foods rooted in taste, heritage, and culture.
At the heart of Vibrant Foods is a people-focused culture underpinned by five core values: Swift, Passionate, Inclusive, Collaborative, and Empowered. Employees are encouraged to share ideas, work collaboratively to solve challenges, and take ownership of their work. This creates an agile, supportive environment where innovation, continuous improvement, and personal development are actively encouraged.
Job title - Category Buyer - Raw Materials
Location - West Bromwich or Leicester
Working pattern - 8 hours, Monday to Friday, with travel to sites
Reporting to - Head of Procurement
Role Purpose
To deliver cost-saving and value-improvement opportunities across raw-material spend. The role leads sourcing, category planning, supplier performance and procurement governance, ensuring ingredients and commodities meet food safety, quality, service, traceability, continuity and cost requirements.
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Key Responsibilities
- Lead sourcing and tenders across food raw-material categories with Procurement, Operations, Supply Chain, Technical, Quality and NPD.
- Define and categorise raw-material spend across Vibrant Foods sites, including ingredients, commodities and manufacturing inputs.
- Develop category plans covering sourcing strategy, supplier consolidation, specification optimisation and total cost of ownership.
- Create and execute RFQs and tenders defining specifications, quality parameters, origin, allergen controls and service expectations.
- Deliver savings and value improvements through structured sourcing and tendering, aligned with key stakeholders.
- Negotiate favourable commercial terms and support contract review with the line manager and legal advisers where required.
- Manage supplier performance through reviews, OTIF and quality tracking, complaint resolution, corrective actions and continuous improvement.
- Own contract lifecycles and governance, maintaining audit-ready records, renewals, notice periods, supply coverage and compliance.
- Mitigate supplier and category risk, and support onboarding, product development and data-led decisions without compromising safety, quality, traceability or supply.
Person Specification
Essential
- Minimum two years' experience in a raw-materials procurement role.
- Experience developing raw-material sourcing or category plans that balance cost, quality, service, food safety and continuity.
- Experience leading tenders and RFQs from initiation through recommendation and award.
- Experience managing supplier relationships, performance, quality issues and renewals in manufacturing or food supply.
- Strong negotiation, commercial and analytical skills, including spend analysis and reporting.
- Good Excel, Word and PowerPoint skills.
- Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with confidence to challenge requirements and work cross-functionally.
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Desirable
- Fluent in Hindi or Gujarati
- Experience using ERP, purchase-to-pay or contract-management systems.
- Understanding of raw-material specifications, supplier controls, traceability or commodity markets.
- CIPS qualified or working towards CIPS; proactive and able to work independently.
Benefits Full of Flavour
At Vibrant Foods, we believe great benefits are an essential ingredient in a rewarding career. Here’s a taste of what you can enjoy:
- 33 days’ annual leave - Plenty of time to relax, recharge and enjoy life outside work.
- Pension contributions matched up to 5% - Contribute 5% and we’ll match it—giving you a total pension contribution of 10%.
- Private healthcare eligibility - Access additional support to help you look after your health and wellbeing.
- Volunteering days - Take time away from your usual role to support the causes and communities that matter to you.
- Free on-site parking - Making your daily journey a little easier.
- And many more benefits to enjoy!
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