I continued by working as clerk in the purchase department. Today, I am deputy chief buyer of Sonepar Deutschland / Region Süd, a company with more than 1.000 employees generating a sales volume of 560 million Euros in 2006.
As deputy chief buyer I am in charge for my purchasing team. Making available the right product for a price in line with the market to the right point of time is my daily target simply to enable our sales staff to act as efficient as they can be. Additionally, interaction and exchange of consolidated findings with my colleagues from the sales side is a major job in my profession.
Being the tie between our suppliers and our sales department is one of the main objects. This is the best way to recognize our customer’s demands in daily business and enables our organisation to distribute our range of products to prices in line with the market. This aim is accompanied by detecting product innovations and updating market news.
Additionally, a close cooperation with the logistics department is key to success. Balancing the purchase department’s demands with the ones of the logistics and sales side is decisive.
Instead seeing itself just as a distributor of goods the electrical wholesale is asked to render a broad range of additional added value services to its customers. So far, Sonepar Deutschland / Region Süd is best in class in that field.
I myself had the chance to observe and assist the company’s development since sixteen years now. Starting as a small electrical wholesale with six branches in Bavaria being actually the bigest market player in the south of Germany with 45 branches. Beside all these changes on that way our business culture never changed: combining business oriented targets with respectful attitude towards all employees, all departments and all business partners. I am convinced that this mixture is an essential part of Sonepar Deutschland’s success and attraction.
