Trainee Category Buyer

What You'll Be Doing - Supporting the Category Manager with the day-to-day management of product categories. - Maintaining supplier, product and purchasing master data. - Assisting with purchasing forecasts and stock planning activities. - Supporting supplier communications and relationship management. - Monitoring pricing, sales, and margin performance. - Assisting with supplier compliance, quality, and product documentation. - Helping to identify opportunities to improve sales, profitability, and customer satisfaction. - Supporting range reviews and product performance analysis. - Working closely with branches, sales teams, suppliers, and stock control teams. - Assisting with promotional activity, product launches, and category development projects. - Producing reports and analysing data to support business decisions. - Learning negotiation and supplier management skills from experienced colleagues. What We're Looking For We recognise that you may not have direct buying experience, so we're looking for someone with the right attitude and potential to grow. Essential - Strong organisational and administrative skills. - Excellent communication and interpersonal skills. - A proactive and enthusiastic approach to learning. - Good numerical and analytical ability. - Strong attention to detail. - Ability to build effective working relationships. - Good Microsoft Office skills, particularly Excel. - Ability to prioritise workload and manage multiple tasks. Desirable - Experience in an administrative, customer service, sales, supply chain or purchasing environment. - Knowledge of the civils, drainage, or construction sector. - Experience using SAP, Phocas or similar business systems.