David Wright

Procurement Lead @RS Integrated Supply

Warrington, GB

Following promotion to head of department grade (previously Buying Manager 20••••21) my duties expanded to eventually lead a team of 70 across the UK and 10 EU countries. This expanded upon my previous Buying Manager role to include:• Leadership of additional 20 UK site-based buyers, including building and recruiting for a new management structure to support this• As our footprint in EU grew, initially my role was to support European colleagues performing an equivalent role. From September 2022, the leadership of these teams fell under my remit resulting in headcount growth of c. 25• Key stakeholder with intercompany supply partners from within the RS Group• Client service delivery, interaction and management, in particular with strategic new business wins• Increasing focus on savings delivery across the business, alongside strategic procurement lead colleagues• Key roles across several integration projects as EU and USA businesses merged under the one brand of RSIntegrated Supply including global system integration, process standardisation and harmonization. This hasincluded development of automation including AI, and process improvement initiatives• Currently contributing to several workstreams within a business transformation programme, to lead the businessthrough a system upgrade impacting internal teams, suppliers and clients Staff recruitment, retention, training & coaching are all important aspects of the role, where we’ve built a strong team – from entry level to CIPS qualified buyers - who consistently report above average levels of engagement with the businessAdditional responsibilities which I’ve taken on in my time include management of:• the business’ Out of Hours (emergency evening and weekend) service• supplier master data team