Associate Buyer

About The Bruce Company

The Bruce Company is a local, family-run landscaping company that's been in business for 70 years. We are passionate about achieving incredible results for our customers and offer an exciting and collaborative company culture where our employees grow along with our company.

Why Choose The Bruce Company?

• Work/Life Balance: Enjoy a structured work schedule with weekly pay and year-round benefits.
• Team-Oriented Environment: Thrive in a supportive and collaborative workplace designed to foster career success.
• Impactful Contributions: Work on some of the largest landscape projects in Dane County.
• Career Growth: Establish and develop your career with Southern Wisconsin's leader in landscaping.

Position Summary

The Associate Buyer supports the Purchasing team by executing daily purchasing operations, maintaining accurate data, and providing analytical support. This role focuses on execution and reporting, supporting the purchasing team. Through this work, the role gains exposure to broader merchandising and ordering strategy and margin optimization.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Procurement Execution

• Process recurring and replenishment purchase orders
• Ensure accuracy in quantities, pricing, and delivery timelines
• Monitor open orders and follow up with vendors
• Maintain purchase order records and documentation
• Identify stockouts, overstock, and slow-moving inventory
• Maintain item master data, including costs and vendor information
• Support min/max inventory levels and replenishment triggers
• Run and maintain reports on inventory, sales, and purchase activity
• Track metrics such as sell-through, margin, and inventory turns
• Prepare order suggestions for Buyer review
• Help maintain accurate cost updates and pricing changes in system

Vendor & Operation Coordination

• Work with receiving, inventory, and operations teams
• Resolve discrepancies between purchase orders, receipts, and invoices
• Review and process order confirmations, receipts, and invoices to identify and resolve discrepancies
• Set up and maintain clean and accurate item, vendor, and pricing data in the system
• Partner with buyers, inventory control, receiving, and operations teams to support material flow
• Communicate with vendors regarding order status and availability
• Resolve routine issues and escalate when necessary
• Support identification of potential new products or input materials for value-added offerings
• Help evaluate product performance and recommend adjustments based on sales and margin data
• Ensure consistency and accuracy in product setup and categorization

Requirements

• Experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Counterpoint (POS) is helpful.
• Accurate and efficient data entry skills.
• Demonstrates urgency, accuracy and attention to detail.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Thrives in a fast-paced, seasonal environment while effectively managing deadlines and multiple priorities.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills both written and verbal.
• Demonstrated ability to maintain a high level of confidentiality working with sensitive customer and organizational information.

Physical Requirements

• Regularly sits, stands, walks, talks and listens for long periods of time throughout the day.
• Occasionally lifts weight of up to 25 pounds.
• Occasionally required to reach above shoulders.
• Vision and fine motor skills required for use of computers and creating communication.

Job Specifications

• Typical work hours are Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:00am to 5:00pm.
• Overtime may be required as workload dictates.
• Hours vary during peak season.

Additional Information

This position description is not intended to be a complete list of all duties and responsibilities of the job. Further, the duties assigned may be added, deleted or modified at any time at the discretion of management.

The Bruce Company is an EEO/AA employer.

Mission Statement: We are dedicated to maintaining the highest level of customer satisfaction by providing premium quality products, superior customer service and exceptional value, thereby assuring our customers and our communities of a continued presence and our employees of a quality and career oriented environment.