Food Buying Category Assistant | Retail | Marks & Spencer | UAE

Job Requisition ID: 160956 

Established in the 1930s as a trading business, Al-Futtaim Group today is one of the most diversified and progressive, privately held regional businesses headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Structured into five operating divisions; automotive, financial services, real estate, retail and healthcare; employing more than 35,000 employees across more than 20 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, Al-Futtaim Group partners with over 200 of the world's most admired and innovative brands. Al-Futtaim Group’s entrepreneurship and relentless customer focus enables the organization to continue to grow and expand; responding to the changing needs of our customers within the societies in which we operate. 

By upholding our values of respect, excellence, collaboration and integrity; Al-Futtaim Group continues to enrich the lives and aspirations of our customers each and every day

Overview of the role:

The Buying Category Assistant’s assist the food buyer to process all food orders, stakeholder management, assist preparing retail and pricing strategies, placing and tracking purchase orders, managing inventory and keeping track of market trends.

What you will do:-

Description of Accountability:

• Assisting the Buyer with the selection of the right commercial offer
• Researching new suppliers and making recommendations
• Reviewing retail/buying prices and margins regularly
• Regularly review competitors and wider market to monitor prices, range, suppliers, trends and new products
• Understanding of the merchandising process, product lifecycle and being able to come up with relevant proposals and recommendations for action.

PO Management

• Ensuring products are purchased at the right time, to specification and at a competitive price.
• Following up on orders placed and working close with vendors & the logistics team to resolve shipping/delivery issues and assure the target stock levels are met
• Planning, monitoring and maintaining suitable inventory levels

Ad Hoc & Reporting

• Creating on a regular base & ad hoc business reports such as newness sales report etc as and when required
• Substituting the buyer adequately when necessary to ensure business needs are met and assist in additional activities related to new store opening in UAE and other countries
• Training and mentoring new Category Assistants and sharing best practices with them
• Proactively support e commerce team and category development team on their requirements
• Placing orders with UK
• Raising claims to UK for any issues

Required Skills to be successful:

• Strong analytical skills
• Very strong commercial awareness and creative skills.
• Decisive and able to work in a super fast paced environment
• Strong communication, analytical and organizational skills.
• Display delegation skills, priorities within delegated tasks and manage deadlines.
• Practice excellent time management skills and ability to cope under pressure

What equips you for the role:

• Bachelor Degree (Masters Preferred)
• 3-4 years’ experience in in any Food establishment
• Either 3 years in a similar role or 3-4 years product experience in another role coupled with SAP knowledge and advanced excel skill
• Individual Accountability
• Continuous Improvement
• Personal Leadership
• Teamwork
• Attention to Detail
• Highly Numerate
• Product Confident
• Good Communicator

About Al-Futtaim Retail

Al-Futtaim Retail has established itself as one of the leaders in Retail across the Middle East, Africa & Asia over the past 30 years. We have developed partnerships with some of the biggest and most respected Brands in the world including IKEA, ACE and Toys R Us in the Middle East and the Inditex Group of Brands (Zara, Mango, Bershka and P&B) across Asia. We are also one of the largest Global partners of Marks and Spencer’s in both regions with over 75 stores offering both fashion & food options.
 
Most recently we have been responsible for bringing brands to the Middle East for the first time with the exciting launches of Watsons and B&Q and we aim to continue to be agile and adaptive to our markets with new launches and further development. For this to be possible we aim to recruit the best talent from all backgrounds who will continue to challenge and develop our diverse workforce which includes over 100 nationalities across 12 countries. Join us today and make a difference…