About this role
Company Description
Starting with a single red ‘shed’ over 40 years ago, today The Warehouse Group is home to some of Aotearoa’s iconic brands. The Warehouse is where Kiwis turn for trusted value and our Home division is where we aim to make their home & spaces better, every day.
We’re looking for an experienced Lead Buyer – Housewares for our Home division. This is your chance to shape the future of how our category, products and brands show up for our customers and influence products found in homes across Aotearoa - driving performance, creativity, and value at scale.
Job Description
As Lead Buyer - Housewares, this is a key role in an important division for our business, blending hands-on category buying with people leadership (circa 2 - 3 direct reports). You’ll drive the Housewares buying strategy, delivering compelling, trend-led ranges that meet the needs of our customer base, while developing talent and capability within your team.
Bring together commercial acumen, customer insight, and data-driven decision-making to drive trend, influence product selection, pricing, and supplier partnerships, ensuring we consistently deliver quality and value at the right price.
- Range Development: Lead buying for Housewares (Kitchen & Dining, Home Décor, and Laundry categories), curating range and collections that are driving trend, seasonal demands, meeting customers wants and financial targets.
- Category Strategy: Shape and execute the buying strategy, ensuring alignment with broader business goals and customer expectations.
- Trading & Commercial Performance: Maximise sales, margin, and stock efficiencies by responding to market trends and trading conditions with agility.
- Supplier Management: Build and maintain strong supplier relationships, negotiating competitive terms, and securing the best product offerings.
- Customer & Market Insights: Use data, trend analysis, and customer feedback to inform buying decisions and stay ahead of competitors.
- Team Leadership & Development: Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team, fostering collaboration and innovation.
- Sustainability & Ethical Sourcing: Work towards responsible and sustainable sourcing strategies, ensuring compliance with ethical standards and business sustainability goals.
Qualifications
What we’re looking for?
- Significant buying experience and proven track record (8+ years/lead or senior level), ideally within Housewares, Home, or a related category
- Genuinely passionate about Home products/categories – you’ll have your finger on the pulse and always geared for better
- Big box retailer experience – bring in and share the best of your career learnings!
- Strong customer centric, data-driven, commercial mindset and financial acumen - ability to balance creativity and financial performance.
- Confident people leader and operator with genuine passion for developing/mentoring talent and fostering a positive culture
- Comfortable and confidence operating in a fast-paced retail environment.
Additional Information
Come work with us as we look to build exceptional retail brands that customers love and our teams take pride in!
We offer a range of benefits that work for you and your career which include:
- Team member discounts across our brands
- Paid birthday day off for permanent team members
- Free parking, onsite gym and café at our Northcote support office
- We value collaboration & flexibility – embracing hybrid working, up to 2 days working from home
- 26 weeks paid parental leave for permanent team members
- A range of wellbeing support and development opportunities
If you’re passionate about Home, love building ranges customers can’t live without, and thrive on leading people and performance, we’d love to hear from you!
Other facts
About The Warehouse Group
In December 2012 Noel Leeming Group was acquired by The Warehouse Group. (TW Group)
TW Group is a New Zealand success story, founded by Sir Stephen Tindall and grown from The Warehouse, TW Group is the largest general merchandise retailer in New Zealand. TW Group includes The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery, Noel Leeming and Multi-Channel Business Unit (e-commerce websites, wholesale and alternative channel business).
Noel Leeming strives to offer a superior standard of service and the widest possible range of branded consumer technology and appliances.
Noel Leeming promises its customers that it will never knowingly be undersold. It provides comprehensive after sales support and can assist with customer requests for 'at home help' with it's TechSolutions service.
With its significant retail footprint, Noel Leeming is uniquely positioned to offer its customers new technology based products such as LCD/LED TVs, the latest in Smartphone technology as well as a comprehensive range of Computers and tablets from all the major brands. We carry an extensive list and Digital Cameras including DSLR's and convergence technologies. Demand for these technologies is growing and is expected to continue to drive growth in the Noel Leeming brand.
In August 2002, Noel Leeming introduced Noel Leeming "Online", offering customers the opportunity to research and then buy products over the Internet — This channel continues to unite the company with the customer as the retail space embraces the digital environment www.noelleeming.co.nz.
What you'll do
- The Lead Buyer - Housewares will drive the buying strategy for Housewares, focusing on range development and category strategy. This role involves maximizing sales and margin while managing supplier relationships and leading a team.
Ready to join The Warehouse Group?
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