Caryl Pugh
Midsomer Norton,Bath
Summary
Accomplished procurement specialist with extensive expertise in strategic procurement, vendor negotiation, and supply chain optimisation. Demonstrates proficiency in managing contracts, sourcing suppliers, and implementing cost-reduction strategies to achieve business objectives. Skilled in data analysis, demand planning, and ethical sourcing methods, ensuring compliance with legal contracts and sustainability standards. Adept at stakeholder engagement and cross-functional team collaboration to drive continuous improvement in procurement processes. Career goal: to leverage procurement expertise to enhance organisational efficiency and sustainability.
Overview
32
32
years of professional experience
3
3
years of post-secondary education
1
1
Certification
Work history
Indirect Project Buyer
Horstman Defence Systems Ltd
Bath, Bath & N.E. Somerset
09.2018 - Current
- Invested in continuous professional development to stay abreast of industry changes by completing CIPS Levels 4, 5 & 6.
- Developed purchasing strategies to meet company objectives and goals effectively.
- Producing reports for on time delivery to assist in effectively managing suppliers.
- Assessed potential suppliers, ensuring quality and reliability.
- Boosted supplier relationships by negotiating contracts and terms.
- On boarded new suppliers to reduce expenses and maverick buying.
- Established efficient procurement processes for improved supply chain management.
- Collaborate with the operations team for accurate forecasting of product needs.
- Identified stock quantity and quality, delivery times and other contract conditions to be met.
- Analysed supply chain strategies and implemented sustainable procurement processes to keep continuous stock of products.
- Streamlined inventory control with obtaining information from different department stakeholders of what they wanted in the Kanban system.
- Established delivery schedules to maintain the Kanban system to keep the facilities and operations department fully stocked.
- Communicating closely with stakeholders and vendors helping to secure well-timed deliveries by monitoring the progress of the order and ensuring timely delivery of products, maintaining high customer satisfaction.
- Handled vendor disputes or order discrepancies swiftly and professionally to maintain and preserve good business relations.
- Maintained strong working relationships with suppliers and vendors to obtain favourable contract terms.
- Sourced and identified new vendors whilst researching competitive domestic markets.
- Visit existing suppliers to build on relationships and conduct a risk management audit to ensure continuation of supply.
- Negotiated contract terms and awarded supplier contracts to achieve optimum business profits.
- Negotiated pricing for apparel and accessories from vendors to secure optimal pricing and keep costs low.
- Conducted an ethical audit on our apparel supplier to ensure our vendors supply chain is procuring their products ethically.
- Managed tender process, interviewing and comparing bids to maximise contract terms.
- With keen attention to detail for discrepancies with order confirmations and invoices.
- For cost-efficiency, sourced products from various domestic suppliers.
Purchasing Manager
Systems Engineering & Assessment Limited
Beckington, Somerset
01.2005 - 05.2018
- Period 2014 – May 2018. Promoted to SG6 Purchasing Manager. My role is more strategic at this level. I produce various reports with pivot tables to show the volume of orders placed per month and also how much the divisions are spending. The information is analysed and I work with the divisions to make cost savings and efficiencies.
- I have gained further knowledge on legal aspects of purchasing and have developed my knowledge of terms and conditions with the help of a mentor. This has enabled me to product a new sets of Terms and Condition of Purchase for the company.
- I have negotiated various contracts and developed suppliers to support our business and give us a great service level agreement to fit our business needs. I have recently saved circa £120k on Dell servers, £20k on Arcserve Licences over 5 years, printer contract which has made a saving of £30k over the 5 year contract, £13k on the workwear laundry contract, £9k on mobile and landline providers. I am responsible for centralising all indirect contracts. To improve and develop existing contracts or negotiate new contracts across all four SEA offices.
- I work with the Finance Director to ensure that the company insurance policy adequately covers all our business needs. This 60 page document will be returned to the insurance broker and added to the other Cohort plc group of companies. I am the point of contact with regards to any insurance matter whether it is just a query or as part of a claim.
- I am responsible for the management of the company car fleet. This includes arranging services, MOT's and insurance claims. I wrote the Company Car Salary Sacrifice policy from scratch and I worked with the Health & Safety Manager to complete a new Driving at Work policy.
- Period 2010 – 2014. Promoted to SG5 Senior Purchasing Officer. I was given an additional task which was to manage the services contracts. My first was the cleaning and catering contracts. I researched and benchmarked the salaries for the employees and found that they had an enhanced salary compared to the industry standard for our area. The increase was also not in line with the RPI for that period therefore the increase was not justified and the prices were held for another 12 months. I apply the same method to other service contract by comparing the industry standards and benchmarking them ready to negotiate.
- The HR Department wanted to introduce a Travel Policy for all staff and I was on the team who produced this policy. This was part of a bigger picture as I became the Contract Manager for the Travel Management Company. If there are any queries from SEA or the Travel Management Company I am the point of contact and I aim to resolve any issues within 48 hours. As part of managing this contact I ask for feedback from the stakeholders to feedback to the Travel Management Company when I have my regular meetings with them.
- I present on the company induction training courses for new starters and explain my procurement role and how I can assist all the SEA staff in their procurement needs.
- Period 2007 – 2010. Promoted to SG4. I took on more responsibilities within my role. I worked more with the project teams and got more involved with the procurement process earlier on. I would request quotations and negotiate them and really enjoy doing it.
- SEA started a Production Division and I was within that team. It was an experience being part of the division starting it from scratch but I learnt a lot along the way. I was introduced to the ERP system which I had never used before. I produced reports which were very helpful to my role. I would contact all the suppliers and confirm the delivery dates were still valid or I would expedite the urgent ones. I would be the main point of contact for the suppliers and I would communicate any information between the suppliers and the project teams.
- I started to manage the company car fleet with regards to notifying the drivers of tax/MOT renewals and general admin.
- Period 2005 – 2007. I started with SEA as a Purchasing Officer as SG3. SEA is an Engineering company with the majority of its business in the defence sector. My main role was to receive purchase requisitions and process them into Purchase Orders and fax them to suppliers. I would keep an excel spreadsheet of all orders to keep track of orders placed.
- I would do a stock check of the stationery cupboards and replenish them when required. I would also order lunches for meeting. There was scope in changing certain procurement processes so I re-wrote section 9 of our Company Management System. Within that I clarified processes which were not already documented and improved the ones which were already there.
Buyer/Administrator
ComputerWorld (Wales) Limited
01.1995 - 01.2005
- I was employed as an office administrator assisting the Finance/Purchasing Manager. On the procurement side of my role it involved processing orders, processing incoming stock, entering data of all hardware products sold onto a database. While working I achieved a BTEC National Vocational Qualification in Customer Service Level 3.
- On the administrative side of my role I was working with the Training Division. This entailed writing to companies to confirm their bookings with us, scheduling all training courses and computer trainers, updating these schedules daily and preparing them 3 months in advance. Also, I took on responsibility for the delivery of stock via our local courier service and the stock for the Technical Support Division within our company.
- I saw there was a gap in our sales portfolio for certain computer hardware products and consumables that the main sales team were not catering for. I produced a proposal to the Finance Director and re-scheduled my workload to cater for this gap in the company. I took on the responsibility for selling those products and continued with my current duties. As a result of this I contributed to increasing the annual company turnover by an additional £150,000.
- There was a vacancy for the Company Purchaser which I successfully filled that role. This involved purchasing all hardware, software and computer related products sold. I learned how to negotiate prices and seek the best deals from our suppliers. This part of my role has given me knowledge and understanding of financial procedures. Through these duties, I have learned how to use my time more effectively and efficiently.
Receptionist/Office Administrator
Firlands Training Limited
01.1994 - 01.1995
- I was employed here as a Receptionist/Office Administrator. This job involved answering the telephone, greeting visitors, faxing, filing, sorting incoming and outgoing mail, reproducing manuals and paperwork. I was also required to type for all members of staff. Whilst employed here, I passed the RSA Diploma in Business Technology Level 2.
Education
CIPS Level 6 Prof. Diploma in Procurement & Supply - Procurement
Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply
Swindon 03.2024 - 07.2025
BTEC National Vocational Qualification - Customer Service Level 3
CIPS Level 5 Adv. Diploma in Procurement & Supply - Procurement
Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply
Swindon 09.2022 - 07.2023
CIPS Level 4 Diploma in Procurement & Supply - Procurement
Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply
Swindon 09.2021 - 07.2022
RSA Diploma - Business Technology Level 2
Skills
- Taking responsibility of procurement across the business using existing suppliers and also sourcing potential new suppliers
- Managing contracts by improving and developing existing suppliers and negotiating new ones to obtain the business objectives and needs
- Strategically negotiate goods and services to achieve the best purchase price, quality and lead time available Also being aware of price breaks, current special price reductions suppliers may be having Negotiating cash back on service contracts
- Processing transactional purchases quickly and efficiently
- Being able to work in a team and adapt to different situations and personalities of the team members I am also confident working on my own
- Always reflecting on positive and negative situations and building on the experience to continuously improve the procurement process
- JIT purchasing techniques linked to demand planning efficiencies
- Data interpretation from reports to manage trends
- Demand planning competency
- Awareness of legal contracts
- Product lifecycle and sustainability awareness
- Negotiating techniques and excellent bargaining acumen backed up with market research
- Commodity pricing analysis of metals and oils and trend forecasting
- Stakeholder engagement capability with cross-functional team liaison
- Knowledge of ERP systems with Procure-To-Pay cycle functionality
- Ethical sourcing methods
- CIPS qualification
- Contract agreement understanding and commercial acumen
- Purchasing procedures
- Strategic procurement expertise
- Technical drawing interpretation
- Logistics coordination
- Vendor negotiation
- Cost-reduction strategies
- Supply chain optimisation
- Budgetary control
- Contract negotiation
- Ethical sourcing
- Inventory monitoring
- Supplier management
- Communication proficiency
- Data analysis tools proficiency
- Continuous improvement drive
- Supply chain software
- SRM platforms
- Critical evaluation
- Procurement ethics understanding
- Product knowledge depth
- Contract management acumen
- Contract negotiation tools
- Forecasting demand
- E-Procurement systems knowledge
- Interpersonal savvy
- Sales and operations planning
- Compliance regulation familiarity
- Resilience under pressure
- Ethical sourcing awareness
- Category management expertise
- Tendering process understanding
- Time efficiency
- Logistics coordination adeptness
- Inventory control proficiency
- Sustainability commitment
- Ethical audit standards
- Quality assurance vigilance
- RFQ preparation
- Demand forecasting insight
- Health and Safety Compliance
- Team player
- Calm under pressure
- Cultural awareness
- Interpersonal communication
- Product knowledge
- Equipment Maintenance
- Strategic planning
- Resourcefulness
- Conflict Resolution
Certification
- Leadership & Development Programme
- Data Protection (GDPR) Module
- Equality & Diversity Module
- CIPS Legal Aspects of Purchasing – 2 Day Course
- CIPS Exploring and Developing Terms & Conditions – 1 Day Course
- CIPS Purchasing Contexts – CIPS Level 4 Module
- CIPS Measuring Purchasing Performance– CIPS Level 4 Module
- CIPS The Purchasing Environment – CIPS Level 4 Module
- CIPS Introduction to Negotiation – 1 Day Course
- Shipley Negotiation Skills – 1 Day Course
- RSA Diploma Information Technology Level 2
- RSA Diploma Business Technology Level 2
- BTEC National Vocational Qualification Customer Service Level 3
- Training & Development (Human Resource Development) Level 4
Affiliations
- My hobby is Scouting, and during my time as a Venture Scout I achieved my Venture Scout Award, Queen Scout Award, and Bronze & Silver Duke of Edinburgh Award. I am currently a Beaver Scout Team Lead and Group Lead Volunteer with 1st Midsomer Norton Scout Group. The Beaver Scouts are aged between 6 and 8 years and we teach them new skills, learn about themselves and the world, explore new things, try new activities and do things they would never normally do and most importantly have fun. I am currently a member of Writhlington Sports Centre and I enjoy keeping fit. My other interest is playing the piano which I have achieved the grade 5 standard and have been certified by the Royal School of Music. I now just play for pleasure.
Timeline
CIPS Level 6 Prof. Diploma in Procurement & Supply - Procurement
Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply
03.2024 - 07.2025
CIPS Level 5 Adv. Diploma in Procurement & Supply - Procurement
Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply
09.2022 - 07.2023
CIPS Level 4 Diploma in Procurement & Supply - Procurement
Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply
09.2021 - 07.2022
Indirect Project Buyer
Horstman Defence Systems Ltd
09.2018 - Current
Purchasing Manager
Systems Engineering & Assessment Limited
01.2005 - 05.2018
Buyer/Administrator
ComputerWorld (Wales) Limited
01.1995 - 01.2005
Receptionist/Office Administrator
Firlands Training Limited
01.1994 - 01.1995