National Manager – Purchasing and Inventory

About the Company

NZ Safety Blackwoods, part of Wesfarmers Industrial and Safety, is one of New Zealand’s leading suppliers of industrial, safety, and engineering products, serving customers across the country through an extensive distribution and trade network.

The business is entering an important period of investment and transformation, modernising its technology and consolidating its distribution footprint to support future growth. This is an organisation that backs its people, invests in capability, and is building a genuine high-performance culture across its supply chain function.

The Role

Reporting to the Head of Operations, you will lead and transform the inventory and purchasing functions, setting the strategic direction for procurement, replenishment, and logistics across the business.

You will lead a function of more than 20 people across inventory operations, inventory projects, purchasing, and planning, with accountability for up to $50m of inventory value and for the stock availability that underpins delivery performance to customers.

This is a role with real breadth, spanning strategy, people, systems, and commercial outcomes. As well as BAU supply chain and people leadership you will also play a key role leading the rollout and adoption of a new advanced planning system (APS), and lifting the quality of planning, forecasting, and stock availability across the network.

This is not a role for someone content to maintain the status quo. It is a role for an experienced supply chain leader who wants to build capability, modernise systems and processes, and leave the function in a materially better place.

Key Responsibilities

• Set and execute the strategic direction for planning, procurement, inventory, replenishment, and logistics
• Lead the rollout and adoption of the new APS system to improve planning, forecasting, and availability
• Support the continued transition to the consolidated Drury distribution centre
• Build, lead, and develop high-performing teams across inventory and purchasing
• Drive process and systems improvement to reduce manual effort and lift productivity, cost, and service
• Develop strategic supplier relationships, improving reliability, responsiveness, and lead times
• Own KPIs across stock availability, delivery performance, inventory value, and working capital efficiency
• Manage inventory budgets, cost of goods, and purchasing spend, maintaining auditable controls
• Key Skills & Experience

Required

• Significant senior experience (five years or more) across inventory, procurement, and supply chain management
• Proven leadership of large teams and cross-functional projects
• Demonstrated experience implementing technology and systems, ideally an APS or similar planning system
• Strong commercial acumen and the strategic thinking to set direction and prioritise
• A genuine change leader, comfortable transforming processes, systems, and ways of working
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management across a broad internal and external base
• A customer orientation and a clear drive for results
• Secondary qualifications essential, with relevant higher education preferred

About You

You are an experienced, commercially minded supply chain leader who is energised by transformation rather than maintenance. You think strategically but stay close enough to the detail to drive delivery, and you know how to bring a large team with you through change.

You set a clear direction, hold people to account, and develop capability as you go. You are comfortable leading a major systems implementation and a significant network change at the same time, and you have the influence and stakeholder skills to keep a broad business aligned behind you.

What’s In It For YouThis is a genuine opportunity to lead and reshape a national supply chain function at a well-established New Zealand business that is investing in its future. You will own the strategy, the people, the systems, and the commercial outcomes, with a clear mandate to modernise and a business willing to back it with investment in technology.

For an experienced leader who wants to deliver a meaningful transformation and develop a high-performing team, this is a role with real scope and lasting impact.

• Leadership role with national scope
• Auckland-based, with on-site parking
• Clear mandate to lead a major systems and network transformation
• Genuine investment in technology, capability, and career development
• Established NZ business with a high-performance culture
• To be considered for this position, please submit your CV via the link below.
• For a confidential discussion, contact Wayne Fry on 021 656 502 or email waynef@huntercampbell.co.nz