Hudson Harvest (formerly Hudson Valley Harvest) is a wholesale regional distributor that sells local, seasonal food to restaurants, retailers, and institutions. We’ve been in business since 2011, with the goal of being a trusted source of high quality local ingredients, while being a collaborative partner to our local farmers and producers. We distribute to customers in the Greater NYC area and up north, through Albany, NY. Our warehouse is located in Germantown, NY and our sister company, Field Goods, which sells direct-to-consumer, is located in Athens, NY.

To learn more, please visit: www.hv-harvest.com

Job Description
We are looking for a dairy buyer and operations associate to join our team as soon as possible. This is a full-time, on-site, salaried position with health benefits and paid time off. You must be available to work at our warehouse in Germantown, NY at least three days a week.

In this role you will serve as a key member of the buying team with responsibilities including: fulfilling customer orders on time and in full, actively curating and growing our product selection, maintaining competitive list pricing while keeping gross profit in mind, forging excellent relationships with vendors, and communicating regularly with the sales team to educate them on product and help them sell successfully.

Additionally, you will be an integral part of our warehouse team with the goal of improving efficiency through operational process improvements.


Responsibilities
Buying

• Your primary focus as a buyer will be to strengthen our dairy program with the ultimate goal of tripling our dairy sales within a year. You will do this by:
  • Seeking out new producers and onboarding exciting products to our catalogue
  • Strengthening relationships with existing vendors and building new relationships
  • Working with our vendors and our operations team to shorten lead times for our dairy offerings, making it easier and more attractive for customers to buy our products
  • Regularly assessing list prices to ensure our offerings are competitive, while maintaining gross profit requirements with considerations around shelf life and inventory complexity
• Your secondary buying responsibility will be to support our produce buyer. This will include a variety of needs including:
  • Growing our produce category for high volume, enterprise type customers
  • Providing support in the height of the produce season when volume and variety are at their peak
  • Assisting with produce receiving and quality control, which includes speaking with farmers when issues arise as part of an ongoing communication channel
  • And various other buying needs, as they arise

Warehouse Operations

• In the warehouse your focus will be around inventory management, quality control, and improving reliability and efficiency. This includes:
  • Scheduling and performing inventory counts
  • Quality control on inventory items (both shelf stable and not) and managing shrink
  • Reporting figures and product status to respective buyers
  • Supporting with receiving and packout tasks, as needed
• Packout performance improvement implementation: In this role, you will constantly seek to improve the efficiency, reliability, and ease of our packout process. After assisting in an analysis of our existing packout operation, you will focus on making these improvements to our processes as a project lead. For example, this may be implementing new inventory control slotting processes utilizing our inventory management technology.

• Experienced in establishing and nurturing strong relationships with farmers and producers in order achieve consistency in fulfillment, clear and ongoing communication, and an exciting product list to drive sales
• Warehouse experience including receiving, quality control, fulfillment tracking, process creation and improvement 
• Super proactive.
• Can lift heavy boxes, spend hours in the refrigerator or freezer, and get their hands dirty
• Strong written and verbal communication skills - our team is spread across the Hudson Valley and NYC - effective communication is key
• Organized, with an ability to prioritize time-sensitive assignments
• Detail-oriented, but doesn’t lose sight of the big picture
• Exceptional problem solver, stays calm and solutions-oriented in a fast-paced environment
• Is nimble and not afraid to work in a start-up culture with a small, agile team where things are constantly evolving, improving, and growing
• Team-player, self-starter, and quick-learner who takes pride in accomplishing tasks successfully and collaboratively
• Comfortable working in various tech platforms (Slack, G Suite, inventory management system)
• Entrepreneurial spirit with passion for Hudson Harvest’s mission of growing the regional food system, driving the local economy, and contributing to environmental sustainability