Procurement Category Manager

Position Responsibilities

• Maintain optimal inventory levels to meet customers’ needs.
• Monitor over-committed and urgent items.
• Increase inventory turns upon reaching full truckloads.
• Resolve slow moving and dead inventory issues.
• Consolidate low volume, slow turning items and vendors.
• Own strategy to ensure in-stock performance while managing shelf life, freshness, and yield risk.
• Proactively address slow-moving, aging, and dead inventory through consolidation, substitution, or liquidation strategies.
• Monitor and resolve over-committed, urgent, and at-risk items, including buyer outs, short-dated product, and receiving discrepancies.
• Review over-committed, urgent items, buyer’s outs, stock adjustments, receiving discrepancies, and sales below cost reports.
• Negotiate buy brackets, inbound freight rates, backhaul dollars, cash discounts, extended terms, and earned income.
• Ensure costing and pricing accuracy, with special attention to changes, discrepancies, and customer audits.
• Process returns to vendors including entering vendor bill backs before merchandise leaves our buildings.
• Set up vendor bill backs with Vice President, Purchasing.
• Review monthly reports.
• Work with Accounts Payable to ensure that vendor bill backs are promptly billed and deducted.
• Continuously evaluate protein assortment and supplier base, consolidating low-volume SKUs and underperforming vendors while identifying opportunities for private label, value cuts, and customer-driven substitutions that protect margin without sacrificing quality.
• Assist accounting with invoicing customers for storage and finance charges on excess inventory.
• Communicate issues and solutions to Area Managers, customers, branch multi-unit account personnel, and receiving and shipping personnel.
• Act as key purchasing contact for Multi-Unit Account Managers and Executives.
• Act as key purchasing department contact for customers.
• Manage product quality issues such as recalls, etc.
• Monitor product expiration dates and ensure proper disposal of out-of-date products.
• Manage and train buyers assigned for all facilities.

Required Qualifications

• Required Education: High School Diploma/GED or Equivalent
• Experience Required: 3-5 years Foodservice distribution and purchasing experience