Category Assistant

Established in the 1930s as a trading business, Al-Futtaim Group today is one
of the most diversified and progressive, privately held regional businesses
headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Structured into five operating
divisions; automotive, financial services, real estate, retail and healthcare;
employing more than ‎35,000 employees across more than ‎20 countries in the
Middle East, Asia and Africa, Al-Futtaim Group partners with over ‎200 of the
world's most admired and innovative brands. Al-Futtaim Group's
entrepreneurship and relentless customer focus enables the organization to
continue to grow and expand; responding to the changing needs of our customers
within the societies in which we operate.
By upholding our values of respect, excellence, collaboration and integrity;
Al-Futtaim Group continues to enrich the lives and aspirations of our
customers each and every day

Overview of the role

The Buying Category Assistant's assist the food buyer to process all food
orders, stakeholder management, assist preparing retail and pricing
strategies, placing and tracking purchase orders, managing inventory and
keeping track of market trends.

What you will do

• Assisting the Buyer with the selection of the right commercial offer


• Researching new suppliers and making recommendations


• Reviewing retail/buying prices and margins regularly


• Regularly review competitors and wider market to monitor prices, range, suppliers, trends and new products


• Understanding of the merchandising process, product lifecycle and being able to come up with relevant proposals and recommendations for action.


• Ensuring products are purchased at the right time, to specification and at a competitive price.


• Following up on orders placed and working close with vendors & the logistics team to resolve shipping/delivery issues and assure the target stock levels are met


• Planning, monitoring and maintaining suitable inventory levels


• Creating on a regular base & ad hoc business reports such as newness sales report etc as and when required


• Substituting the buyer adequately when necessary to ensure business needs are met and assist in additional activities related to new store opening in UAE and other countries


• Training and mentoring new Category Assistants and sharing best practices with them


• Proactively support e commerce team and category development team on their requirements


• Placing orders with UK


• Raising claims to UK for any issues

Required skills to be successful

• Advanced technical knowledge of ERP systems (SAP) and MS Office products (Excel, Word, PowerPoint); above average computation abilities, feeling comfortable with various calculations


• Confident, highly organized and an excellent communicator, has an analytical mind and excellent negotiating skills, communicates with suppliers, planning, visual merchandising, marketing and logistics teams to achieve sales, profits and market share objectives for the Business

What equips you for the role

• ‎2 years' experience in any Food establishment


• Either ‎2 years in a similar role or ‎2 years product experience in another role coupled with SAP knowledge and advanced excel skills

About Al-Futtaim Retail
Al-Futtaim Retail has established itself as one of the leaders in Retail
across the Middle East, Africa & Asia over the past ‎30 years. We have
developed partnerships with some of the biggest and most respected Brands in
the world including IKEA, ACE and Toys R Us in the Middle East and the Inditex
Group of Brands (Zara, Mango, Bershka and P&B) across Asia. We are also one of
the largest Global partners of Marks and Spencer's in both regions with over
‎75 stores offering both fashion & food options.

Most recently we have been responsible for bringing brands to the Middle East
for the first time with the exciting launches of Watsons and B&Q and we aim to
continue to be agile and adaptive to our markets with new launches and further
development. For this to be possible we aim to recruit the best talent from
all backgrounds who will continue to challenge and develop our diverse
workforce which includes over ‎100 nationalities across ‎12 countries. Join us
today and make a difference…