Collection Centre and Procurement Manager
ABP UK · Lancaster, Lancashire
Our estimate of how close this role sits to decisions about what gets sourced, specified, bought and served. How we score
Why this role matters
Where the work sits relative to real sourcing and menu decisions.
This desk sits right at the point where a dairy calf's life outcome is decided — who supplies it, whether that farm meets welfare standards, and whether it stays in the supply chain if it doesn't. You would give direct feedback to calf suppliers, hold the calf specification that farms must meet, and work with farm assurance teams on what actually gets checked and enforced on farm. Few roles in food advocacy circles get this close to a genuinely operational welfare lever: this one decides which farms keep supplying calves for beef and dairy, and on what terms. Anyone serious about improving conditions for dairy calves — one of the most overlooked groups in UK farmed animal welfare — should take seriously what it would mean to hold this specification pen rather than watch someone else hold it.
About the role
ABP UK is hiring a Collection Centre and Procurement Manager to run its Northern Collection Centre, working within the dairy-to-beef supply chain. The role centres on purchasing calves from dairy farmers, building the existing supplier base and driving new business, while providing farmers with guidance on genetic selection. The postholder works onsite at the collection centre on a fortnightly basis, managing calf throughput from farmers and hauliers, giving feedback to calf suppliers, and ensuring high welfare standards are met. On days away from the collection centre, duties include taking bookings, visiting current suppliers and onboarding new ones, all tracked through farm management software. Core duties include supplier recruitment and onboarding against targets, account planning to ensure suppliers meet calf supply goals, booking calves in line with the calf forecast, coordinating calf transport with external hauliers and regional collection centres, maintaining calf specification to company standards, driving supplier performance and new business development in collaboration with genetic companies, and working with farm assurance teams on ongoing compliance. The person specification asks for excellent communication skills, good knowledge of animal welfare standards, experience managing one's own diary, being a team player, good knowledge of the UK dairy, genetics and beef industry, excellent understanding of livestock movements, and the ability to build and develop business relations with the existing client base. A full UK driving licence is required. The advert lists the role as remote but also describes fortnightly onsite work at the collection centre, so the actual arrangement combines site visits with field and remote work.
This is an extract. Read the full advert on the employer's site.
How to position yourself
The language that lands with hiring managers in this kind of role.
Position this as supply chain risk and compliance management: your ability to build supplier relationships while enforcing calf specification and welfare standards protects the business from assurance failures and reputational risk. Build fluency in farm assurance schemes and animal welfare standards specific to dairy and beef, and be ready to speak to genetics, calf forecasting and livestock movement regulation, which the advert names as core knowledge areas.
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