Overview of the role
Head of Buying – John Bell & Croyden
Luxury Beauty, Wellbeing & Healthcare
Location: London
Reports to: General Manager | Direct Reports: 5
John Bell & Croyden, London’s luxury pharmacy and wellbeing destination since 1798, is seeking an inspiring Head of Buying to shape the future of our product portfolio. With a rich heritage and reputation for curating the world’s finest health, beauty and wellness brands, this role offers the chance to drive innovation, commercial success and customer delight at the heart of our premium retail experience.
The Role
As Head of Buying, you will lead the development and execution of a forward-thinking product acquisition strategy across skincare, fragrance, make-up, wellness and healthcare. You’ll be responsible for delivering an exceptional, trend-led and profitable product assortment that reflects our brand’s prestige and sets us apart in the luxury retail landscape.
Working closely with senior leadership, you’ll take full ownership of buying, supplier partnerships, space planning and category performance, while leading and inspiring a high-performing team.
Key Responsibilities
Shape and deliver a market-leading buying strategy that reflects emerging trends and customer aspirations.
Build and manage strong relationships with premium and innovative brands, securing exclusive and high-performing products.
Oversee product lifecycle management, from concept through to launch and performance review.
Drive commercial success through margin optimisation, data-led decision making and strategic promotions.
Lead the Buying and Space Planning teams, ensuring effective mentoring, collaboration, and performance.
Collaborate cross-functionally with marketing, e-commerce and retail to deliver cohesive launches and campaigns.
Conduct range reviews, competitor benchmarking and market analysis to ensure we remain a category leader.
Candidate Profile
We are looking for a commercially astute and visionary buyer with:
5+ years’ experience in a senior buying role, ideally within luxury beauty, wellness or lifestyle retail.
Proven leadership experience, inspiring teams to deliver excellence.
Strong negotiation skills with a track record of building premium brand partnerships.
Excellent commercial awareness and analytical ability to drive growth.
A passion for beauty, wellbeing and product innovation, combined with a strategic mindset and eye for detail.
Why Join Us?
At John Bell & Croyden, you’ll play a pivotal role in shaping the future of one of London’s most iconic luxury retailers. This is an exciting opportunity for a forward-thinking buyer to influence a heritage brand with a modern, global outlook, and to deliver a product range that inspires our discerning customers every day.
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’
