Purchasing Manager

Purchasing Manager  

The Opportunity

Dessert Holdings is North America’s Premium Dessert Company, recognized for providing our Retail and Foodservice customers with chef-inspired innovative desserts made with real ingredients, a flexible and low-cost supply chain, and best in class service. The Holding Company is based in St. Paul, Minnesota, it is an umbrella organization of four premium dessert companies and brands: The Original Cakerie, Lawler’s Desserts, Atlanta Cheesecake Company and Steven Charles. The Original Cakerie, founded in 1979, is a leading manufacturer of high quality frozen desserts for retail and foodservice customers across Canada and the U.S. with locations in Vancouver, BC and London, Ont. Lawler’s Desserts, a manufacturer of gourmet cheesecakes, layer cakes, pies and other premium desserts for the foodservice channel, is based in Humble, TX. Atlanta Cheesecake Company, headquartered in Kennesaw, GA, is a manufacturer of premium cheesecakes sold through the retail trade in the in-store bakery or frozen aisle. Steven Charles, has been innovating gourmet desserts for 25 years for retail and food service customers with manufacturing in Aurora CO and Pembroke NC. Together, the companies serve over 250 customers in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Europe. Dessert Holdings is a portfolio company of Bain Capital, a private equity firm that focuses on high growth businesses.

The Position

The Purchasing Manager's overall responsibility is to lead, organize, manage, and evaluate the purchasing team, purchasing activities and purchasing policies, including the identification of opportunities for purchasing improvements. This includes the skills to manage, direct, and coach both direct and indirect reports to ensure procurement plans are executed. The Purchasing Manager will work closely with the supplier community to identify and manage cost and risk.

Key Technical Responsibilities and Contributions

• Using best practice MRP, assure the materials required for production are at the manufacturing plant at the right time, in the right quantity, with the right price.
• Negotiate supply agreements with suppliers and engage in all aspects of contract management.
• Review and assess total supply chain risk and identify opportunities to minimize and eliminate risk.
• Understand supplier capabilities and capacity to secure uninterrupted and reliable supply, developing alternate sources of supply for key risk categories.
• Liaise with key internal stakeholders; warehouse, QA, R&D, operations, finance and accounting to ensure procurement best practices are followed.
• Maintain the organization's purchasing policies, procedures, standards, and strategies in order to ensure process transparency, fairness, impartiality, and confidentiality.
• Develop and implement category initiatives across the product portfolio to optimize cost, quality and service
• Comply with and maintain knowledge of applicable rules, regulations, standards, and best practices.
• Prepare or oversee the preparation of reports and statistics related to the purchasing function for upper management.
• Identify, qualify, and select vendors of materials, and conduct overall supplier management.
• Generate and/or review consumption reports, and demand forecasts
• Analyze market and delivery systems to assess present and future material availability and alternative sources of supply.

Team Leadership

• Build and lead team by evaluating and utilizing team's skill sets to increase results through positive, open leadership.
• Lead the hiring, career development, and performance management processes of team members.
• Interview, select, coach, train, manage, and appraise the performance of associated personnel and mentor select staff.

Education and Work Experience Requirements

• University degree required
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience within the CPG industry
• Must have experience with food ingredients and packaging material working in a manufacturing environment in North America.
• Experience in developing a high functioning team
• Experience working with multiple customer groups, stakeholders and a cross functional team environment

Specialized Knowledge and Skills

• Specific knowledge of purchasing buying systems, principles, practices, techniques required
• Knowledge of ERP system concepts
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Strong analytical skills including ability to analyze spreadsheets and data to identify opportunities and trends
• Strategic orientation to problem solving