Fresh Product Manager

Description

Company overview:
For over 60 years Delaware Valley Floral Group has been providing professional retail florists with the finest in fresh cut flowers and greens, floral supplies, and botanicals. Delaware Valley Floral Group, Inc. began as a small family business in 1959 and has grown to become one of the largest floral distribution companies in the United States. Our modern, 100,000 square foot Corporate Headquarters, located in Sewell, New Jersey, is supplemented by satellite Logistics, Distribution, and Sales facilities in Edison, NJ, Jessup, MD, Hauppauge, NY, Syracuse, NY, Hartford, CT, Wilkes-Barre, PA, Shrewsbury, MA, Pittsburgh, PA, Cleveland, OH, Richmond, VA and Oxnard, CA.   

We offer an excellent and comprehensive benefits package which includes medical, dental, vision, short term disability, long term disability, company paid life insurance, voluntary life insurance and 401(k) Plan.

Delaware Valley Floral Group is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse work force at all levels of the business thereby creating a culture that allows us to better serve our customers, our employees, and our communities.

Job Description:

This role will manage the sourcing, purchasing, and lifecycle of fresh floral products for our wholesale operations. This role requires strong supplier relationship management, market trend analysis, and inventory control to ensure the highest quality flowers are available for our customers while maintaining cost efficiency.

Essential Functions:

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

1. Typical hours for this position are Monday through Friday daytime.  Additional days/hours may be required due to holidays, special events or special shows.
2. Analyze historical data, trend and color information to make speculative purchases that meet customer demand.
3. Source, negotiate and manage relationships with domestic and international growers and suppliers. 
4. Set sell prices in line with market conditions.  Assure the margin goals are being met.
5. Work closely with our logistics and warehouse teams to assure products are arriving on time and that products are flowing in and out efficiently.  Assure that our inventory is accurate.
6. Assure that our rotation and flow of products matches demand and reduces aging shrink.
7. Work in tandem with our Quality Department to assure that product quality is good, testing and introducing new items, alerting them to challenges in the supply chain that could impact our quality.
8. Collaborate with our Sales team to assure that we are meeting demand and priced within the market.
9. Manage our annual and seasonal standing order programs. 
10. Work with our marketing team to develop promotions, social media content, web promotions, etc. 
11. Maintain and expand relationships with our current suppliers.  Develop relationships with new suppliers to diversify product offerings and improve cost efficiency.
12. Be cognizant of our SKU count. Analyze items that can be removed to make room for new, higher moving selections.
13. Occasional travel both domestically and internationally to visit farms and logistics sources, as well as attending trade shows, and some customer visits.
14. Host visiting suppliers and have strategy buying sessions on new products, packing, etc.
15. Continuous search or areas of improvement, including automating and developing/supporting new processes.
16. Other duties as assigned/required by management.

Supervisory Responsibility:

This position has no direct Supervisor responsibilities.

Work Environment:

This position operates in an office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers and filing cabinets.  At times, this position will require trips to the warehouse and cooler environment (34 degrees).
 

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear.  This position involves sitting for extended periods of time while working at a computer terminal. Positions in this job family typically work in an office setting but may be assigned more physical duties such as transporting office supplies and equipment and bending and stooping to file.  Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus. 

Travel:

This position may require domestic and international travel to trade shows, farms, suppliers or customers.

Qualifications

Required Education and Experience:

1. Experience in buying, procurement or purchasing roles, preferably in the floral, perishable goods or agricultural industry.
2. Excellent negotiation, communication and relationship management skills.
3. Experience with vendor negotiations and supplier management.
4. Experience with inventory forecasting and demand planning.
5. Knowledge of fresh floral products and varieties, seasonality, logistics and supply chain management.
6. Managing product lifecycle from sourcing to market.
7. Proven ability to work in a fast-paced environment, where reactive adjustments need to be made daily, including managing within deadlines.
8. Ability to work and thrive working independently while also satisfying internal Customers (Sales, Operations, Receiving, Quality, Inventory, and Management).
9. Ability to travel domestically and internationally.
10. Strong negotiation and leadership skills.
11. Proficient in Apprise or other ERP/Inventory management system, Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point, Skype and Outlook.  Experience with using Tableau data visualization software a plus.
12. Familiarity with alternative modes of communication such as WhatsApp, Skype, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat.
13. Strong organizational skills and ability to prioritize workload.
14. Self-motivated team player with flexible can-do attitude who is willing and excited to learn.
15. Highly developed sense of integrity and commitment to customer satisfaction.
16. Demonstrated ability to adapt to change in a positive manner.