Head of Procurement

About Us:

At itsu, we're passionate about making healthy eating exciting, accessible, and affordable. As an Asian-inspired food brand, we’ve grown to over 80 restaurants across the UK and Belgium, while building a thriving grocery business that reaches customers across Europe and beyond. Known for our fresh, high-quality food prepared daily in every shop, we're on an ambitious growth journey. With plans to expand our store estate, accelerate our grocery presence, and continue investing in innovation, technology, and our people, we're shaping the future of healthy fast food.

itsu [ grocery ], where this role sits, extends the much-loved itsu brand beyond our shops and into supermarkets, health food retailers, online channels, wholesale partners, and international markets. Our growing product range includes customer favourites such as crispy seaweed thins, frozen gyoza and bao, brilliant'broth, rice'noodles, and miso'easy, bringing the taste and quality of itsu into homes around the world.

Joining itsu means becoming part of a fast-paced, innovative business with big ambitions, a strong culture, and a shared mission to help people eat beautifully every day.

About the role:

As Head of Procurement, you will play a pivotal role in shaping and delivering the procurement strategy, ensuring it supports business growth, innovation, profitability and sustainability goals. Leading both supplier partnerships and a high-performing team, you'll drive commercial value, supply resilience and continuous improvement across the procurement and ESG agenda. you will play a pivotal role in shaping and delivering the procurement strategy, ensuring it supports business growth, innovation, profitability and sustainability goals. Leading both supplier partnerships and a high-performing team, you'll drive commercial value, supply resilience and continuous improvement across the procurement and ESG agenda.

Key Role Responsibilities:

• Develop and Deliver our Procurement Strategy

Create and implement a procurement strategy that aligns to the business growth, profit, innovation and sustainability objectives. Deliver a proactive cost management approach identifying improvements through negotiation, benchmarking and tendering. Ensure procurement work hand in hand with our NPD and technical teams in sourcing & selecting suppliers capable of delivering our innovation pipeline to market in line with our sourcing principles.

• Lead our Supplier Relationships

Oversee the selection, onboarding and ongoing management of our suppliers, through an empowered procurement team. Act as the initial point of escalation across the business for supplier related issues or opportunities. Lead contract drafting and negotiations ensuring terms are well structured, maintained and do not lapse. Support the wider business on contracts & tenders.

• Manage our BCP process

Lead the overall cross functional business continuity planning process, with specific responsibility for our suppliers ensuring supply resilience and cost protection.

• ESG

Oversee our ESG strategy, Ensure adherence to our sourcing policies & certification standards. Review policies, procedures and processes periodically to keep in line with trends & regulatory changes

• Build and Lead a High-Performing Procurement Team

Build and lead high-performing procurement & ESG teams, with excellent cross functional collaboration. Create a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.

Join a collaborative and forward-thinking business where people are empowered to drive positive change, and make a meaningful impact. We foster a culture of accountability, teamwork and continuous improvement, where innovation is encouraged and success is celebrated together.

The ideal candidate will have:

• Extensive experience working in Food FMCG
• Strong line management skills with proven experience in building and motivating teams
• Confident working knowledge of contracts, able to review contracts and redraft contracts at pace without close legal support.
• Deep understanding and experience of how to develop long term supplier relationships across geographies
• Proven track record of delivering well thought through cost savings, that balance commercial benefit whilst maintaining good supplier relationships.
• The gravitas to be a main point of escalation for the team with suppliers.
• Attention to detail and excellent commercial acumen to effectively manage and forecast all product COGS with a good working knowledge of the downstream impact to our sales team, customers and consumers

What We Offer:

• Competitive Salary
• Competitive Bonus Scheme
• 25 days holiday + Bank holidays (two bank holidays are interchangeable for other religious holidays)
• Health Insurance
• Company Pension Scheme
• Hybrid Working model: This can vary by department, with some operating on a 3-day onsite/2-day WFH model and others on a 4-day onsite/1-day WFH. Opportunity to work from abroad 2 weeks of the year.
• 50% employee discount in itsu shops
• Free itsu lunch every day!
• Discounts at major retailers
• Salary sacrifice cycle and electric vehicle schemes
• Development & Growth opportunities

At itsu [grocery], everyone’s taste matters, and so does who’s behind it. We celebrate diversity and are an equal opportunities employer. Applications from all backgrounds are encouraged. If you need support or adjustments to apply, we’ll happily accommodate.