The role of a Procurement Manager is more than just making purchases to our store. It's about careful planning and analyzing data, effective communication, and fostering strong relationships with multiple stakeholders. Having transitioned from a sales position on our supplier side to a Procurement Manager at Foodello–Fiksuruoka, Roy Verkerk, shares his experiences and highlights essential skills that he believes every procurement manager will master in this role.
In early 2023, Roy Verkerk made a big career move from working on one of our suppliers' side in sales to becoming a Procurement Manager at Foodello–Fiksuruoka in the Netherlands. As he joined our team at the beginning of 2023, Roy was excited about our mission of fighting food waste and making an impact towards a more sustainable future.
“In my previous job, I was interacting a lot with the Foodello–Fiksuruoka team, who treated me in a friendly, professional, and respectful way. Our cooperation was enjoyable but I also felt that their sustainable mission resonated with me on a very personal level”, he says.
Roy was driven by a desire to find a more meaningful career aligned with his values, and the idea of switching sides to our Foodello–Fiksuruoka team in the Netherlands slipped into his mind.
“I wanted to work for something that made me feel good at the end of the day. When a position for a Procurement Manager opened I decided to move forward”, he smiles.
“I wanted to work for something that made me feel good at the end of the day.”
The transition to switch the team felt natural, thanks to existing relationships with some of the Foodello–Fiksuruoka team members. As Roy familiarized himself with the responsibilities of procurement professionals, he found a good fit within the Foodello–Fiksuruoka team.
Today, Roy is part of our eight-person procurement team. As a Procurement Manager, his main responsibility is to buy and manage the assortment of the goods we sell at the store. But there is so much more to his role than just that.
“I see myself as more than just a buyer. I build relationships with suppliers, communicate a lot with our warehouses to make sure everything running smoothly, and work closely with our customer service and marketing”, he explains.
Having an analytical mindset is one of the first things that comes to Roy’s mind when thinking about procurement-specific skills. Analytical skills are crucial when it comes to carefully looking at products and figuring out how much stock to have in the store.
“We evaluate a lot of products, and their sales volumes to avoid purchasing too much stock or things that are not so alluring to the customers“, he explains and continues: “It's important to check what items we already have and what we need to buy. We often have stock in different places, and it's crucial to keep an eye on what's coming in.”
In addition, when Roy joined our team a year ago, we were still building our new market in the Netherlands. When you were building a new market where the brand was not yet so well known, analytical skills and familiarity with how customers made purchases were crucial.
Today, the market has changed, and you need to be more strategic about what to buy. The team has to make sure that the amount of products they buy and what customers are willing to purchase stays in balance. In the end, we don't want to end up wasting the products we were supposed to save together with our customers!
Working in procurement is a social role. You will be interacting a lot with both internal and external stakeholders.
“Internally, we cooperate a lot with marketing and customer service teams. We let the marketing team know if there are some specifically good offers coming to our store. Customer service team then shares valuable information about customer feedback from products that will help us make better decisions in the future”, he says.
Externally, Roy is working with our suppliers and communicating with different warehouses. Working with suppliers includes for example negotiating deals about their products and maintaining the relationships to build long-term cooperation. With the warehouses, Roy makes sure to help that they are also happy with our cooperation by informing them of any important information.
“I have sharpened my skills in effective communication and social skills in this role. Being communicative and having casual conversations with little chitchat helps to build relationships. I really enjoy it”, he says.
As mentioned earlier, Roy joined our team when we were starting to grow our market in the Netherlands. Did that mean that our Procurement team also had to convince the suppliers about the business opportunity?
“Not really, if you managed to tell the impressive story of Foodello–Fiksuruoka. New suppliers are generally happy and convinced when they hear it. If I succeed in sharing the story, it often leads to a positive response from suppliers who see the value in how we help them solve a common problem”, he says.
Building trust is essential, and a huge success is when suppliers see their surplus batches purchased and sold in our store. “Personally, these rather small moments are very motivating and we make sure to celebrate them with the team as well”, he smiles.
“In procurement, having good sales and negotiation skills is important because the suppliers we work with, are also salespeople”, Roy points out. And he knows this, as he had worked on the other side before.
“They're skilled at convincing others which is of course nice that they also know what we are doing”, he laughs and continues: “But it is essential to have some sales and negotiation skills to be able to help them fight against food waste.”
As Roy has a background in sales, he already had a quite good grip on how to nail sales and negotiations. But there is always room for growth and that’s where he feels Foodello–Fiksuruoka is helping him to succeed.
“We have training in negotiation and sales techniques from Foodello–Fiksuruoka. The key in this job with supplier relationships and also with the warehouse teams is to understand each other well in these conversations. We get to spend time learning about sales, listening, and negotiation techniques”, he says.
What does that mean concretely?
“Together with the team, we have simulations about potential situations to learn the best practices and get confidence in those situations. In addition, we get to use an hour of our work time each week for self-development. Usually, I use it to listen to audiobooks to improve communication and presentation skills to learn how to connect with suppliers”, he says.
Learning also means accepting mistakes. “When we make errors, like buying the wrong things, we openly discuss them and learn from the experience. I don’t have to be afraid of messing up, it is part of the learning process”, Roy smiles.
As Roy has now closed his first workaversary chapter at Foodello–Fiksuruoka, what would he say have been the highlights of that time?
“I am happy about how I have succeeded in building the supplier relationships, I feel that it has been a two-way street. As we have gotten along and understand each other, they also help me to develop and learn how we can work together to fight against food waste”, he smiles.