Overview of the role
This role is hybrid working, with 3 days in the office or on site visits and 2 days working from home.
Shape the Future of Healthcare Retail in the UK
We’re looking for an experienced and commercially driven Buyer to join our Head Office team in central Manchester on a 12 month FTC. This is an exciting opportunity to take ownership of healthcare categories across our UK-wide network of brick-and-mortar pharmacies.
As part of Bestway Healthcare, Well Pharmacy is the UK’s leading community pharmacy chain, committed to providing accessible healthcare solutions to communities nationwide. This role plays a key part in ensuring our ranges are competitive, customer-focused, and commercially successful.
We have big growth plans for 2025/26, and this opportunity is to manage OTC Healthcare categories across Female health, Self Testing Kits, Family Planning & Sexual Health, and Toiletries Category budgets through to growing market share, supplier investment, sales and margin. You’ll be analytical, very customer and insights driven as well as adept at problem solving through to finding creative solutions and driving new sales initiatives.
What You’ll Be Doing
As Healthcare Buyer, you’ll lead the commercial strategy, range development and supplier relationships across a defined healthcare category. You will:
- Own and deliver category strategy to exceed sales and margin targets
- Lead range planning, pricing and promotional activity in-store
- Collaborate cross-functionally with marketing, supply chain, and retail operations
- Negotiate terms, supplier funding and promotional support
- Monitor the competition and supplier activity on a monthly basis and take remedial action to remain competitive in the market
- Identify trends and innovation within the healthcare market to keep Well ahead of the curve
- Analyse market data and performance to drive category growth and improvements
- Build strong, effective supplier partnerships to deliver growth from strong joint business plans
What We’re Looking For
We're looking for someone with:
- Proven buying or category management experience in retail FMCG or healthcare
- Strong commercial acumen and ability to work with P&Ls and Joint Business Plans
- Experience managing supplier negotiations and joint business planning
- A customer-first mindset, with ability to translate insight into action
- Confidence working cross-functionally in a fast-paced, evolving business
- Excellent communication and influencing skills at all levels
- Strong analytical and decision-making capability
Experience in OTC healthcare, pharmacy, FMCG or regulated retail categories would be highly desirable.
The Ideal Candidate
Well are proud to be a diverse and inclusive employer. If you have any specific requirements, we'll do everything we can to support you. Whether it is to find a pharmacy that is accessible, or if it is a part time position you are looking for, we can help find the role that is right for you. If you need us to make any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process, we will be happy to accommodate you.
Please be aware that due to the high number of applications we receive it may not be possible for us to provide an outcome to all applicants. If you are not contacted within 28 days of your submission unfortunately you will have been unsuccessful.
About the Company
For over 70 years, we’ve been looking after the health and wellbeing of communities across the UK. Well Pharmacy (part of Bestway Healthcare) is the second largest pharmacy chain in the UK with c.760 pharmacies and a team of around 7,000 colleagues based across our Community Pharmacies, Online Pharmacy, Healthcare Services Centre, Community Drivers, Bestway Medhub & Wardles team and our Support Centre team.
Our mission is to be here for the wellbeing of our patients and customers, to provide the best community pharmacy experience in the UK for everyone, for our patients, our customers, our people, and our NHS.
The pharmacy of the future will look very different from the one we know today. It will play a huge role in transforming primary healthcare and we will play a central role in bringing it to life.
We will use our clinical expertise and technological ambition to take advantage of the potential this future has to offer us. Making medicines, advice, services and care available in the places and spaces that people need and want it most.
We want to be a great business. To be recognised as delivering a community pharmacy experience that is the best there is. To do this we want our teams to feel proud about the positive impact they make, feel valued as part of a close-knit and expert community, and feel confident in their role in a business that is stable, innovative, and caring.
‘Together we make a difference’