Buying Manager / Head of Buying
Location: Doncaster — office-based
Salary: £45,000–£50,000 DOE
Bonus: Profit-share bonus & yearly Christmas Bonus
Hours: Full time, Monday to Friday
We are happy to discuss working hours for the right candidate.
Join Melody Maison and Help Shape What Our Customers Buy Next
Melody Maison is a fast-moving home interiors brand known for stylish, distinctive furniture, mirrors and home accessories.
We are looking for an experienced, commercially driven Buying Manager to lead our buying function and shape the future of our product ranges.
This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who understands that a successful range must do more than look beautiful. It must excite customers, deliver strong margins, arrive on time and sell at the right rate.
You will take ownership of the full buying journey, from product ideas and supplier sourcing through to forecasting, production, quality control, launch and stock performance. You will also lead and develop a buying team of three to four colleagues, including Buyers, Assistant Buyers and a Supply Chain Assistant.
The Role
As Buying Manager, you will be responsible for building balanced, commercially successful ranges that reflect the Melody Maison brand and support our sales, margin and growth objectives.
You will combine creative product judgement with strong commercial thinking, using customer insight, market trends, performance data and supplier knowledge to make confident buying
- Build commercially balanced ranges across categories, styles, colours, sizes and price points.
- Define the right mix of core, seasonal, repeat and test products.
- Decide which products should be developed, repeated, improved or discontinued.
- Ensure ranges support seasonal campaigns, lookbooks and launch plans.
Lead, coach and performance-manage a buying team of three to four people.
- Set objectives and review performance.
- Develop the team’s commercial judgement, negotiation skills and product knowledge.
- Create clear accountability and ownership.
- Maintain accurate buying administration and critical-path deadlines.
- Make final decisions on significant purchases and supplier selection.
- Develop supplier strategies across the Far East.
- Source new products and suppliers.
- Negotiate prices, MOQs, lead times, payment terms and exclusivity.
- Build strong, long-term supplier relationships.
- Review supplier performance and rationalise the supplier base where required.
- Manage cost, freight, currency and supply-chain risks.
Oversee the full product-development process, from concept and sampling through to costing, compliance, quality approval and production sign-off.
Work with suppliers and Quality Control teams to resolve issues and use customer feedback, returns and defect data to improve product and packaging quality.
Forecast demand by product, category and season.
Set initial order quantities and replenishment plans.
Review sales performance and update forecasts.
Align stock intake with campaigns, launches, warehouse capacity and cash flow.
Balance product availability against the risk of overstock.
Manage the buying budget and open-to-buy position.
Control cost prices and full landed costs.
Protect and improve margins.
Monitor stock commitments and identify commercial risks early.
Ensure buying decisions are financially controlled and evidence-based.
Monitor sales, sell-through, stock cover, margin, stock turn, returns and aged stock.
Take early action on overstock, stockouts and underperforming products
We are looking for an experienced buying professional who can demonstrate:
Strong buying experience within furniture, homewares, interiors or a related product-led sector.
Experience leading and developing a buying team.
Strong range-planning, supplier-negotiation and international-sourcing skills.
Commercial knowledge of margins, landed costs, MOQs and open-to-buy.
Proven forecasting, stock-management and data-analysis ability.
Experience managing products from concept through to launch, including quality and compliance.
Strong organisation, communication and cross-functional working skills.
A genuine interest in home interiors and customer-focused product development.
You should be comfortable working in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment where priorities can change and ideas must be turned into commercial action.