Purchasing

ON THE SHOPPING LIST, READY, GO!

Unfortunately, things are quite so simple. After all, 80 team members from a variety of departments and fields manage the sourcing of our goods from all over the world every day. While our purchasing team selects our suppliers, negotiates and calculates prices, the quality and fit are the most important areas for our Quality Development and Assurance departments. Our various departments and teams all work very closely together. They share one goal: to purchase products on the basis of fair and trusting cooperations which make our customers happy!

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OUR AREAS OF WORK

QUALITY DEVELOPMENT

Our Quality Development department is responsible for ensuring that our collection is implemented in every detail by our suppliers and that each article fulfils our fit and quality requirements. Each article makes a stopover here during its product journey and is looked after intensively by a total of 18 team members. Our team creates a dimension table based on the drawings from the Design department and determines all the technical details such as the care instructions, packaging and labelling of the article. The suppliers can then use this information to create the initial pre-production samples. As soon as the samples arrive in Coesfeld-Lette, the Quality Development department checks these technical specifications as well as the workmanship and fit. Only when the samples have been approved by Quality Development is the supplier given the go ahead to start with the production.

PURCHASING

Once a collection has been designed and planned by our Collection Development department, our Purchasing team enters the game! A team of 20 colleagues ensures the long-term and sustainable supply of the planned articles at the lowest possible costs. Modern tools are used each day in order to plan, cost and, of course, negotiate. All of this takes place by telephone, email, video and sometimes in the sourcing countries in person and on site. Once an article has been purchased, our Purchasing department monitors the delivery dates in close collaboration with Sourcing Logistics and accompanies the article on its journey to sales together with our Quality Development and Control teams.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

Quality that makes you happy! A promise to our customers which is also the top priority for our Quality Assurance team. Once our Quality Development department has completed its work, Quality Assurance begins checking the production samples. A team of 18 colleagues ensures the high standard of our products. They create and monitor the inspection processes, carry out their own checks or commission inspection institutes, taking account of both the statutory and internal company quality requirements. To this end, the team is always in direct discussions with our suppliers. Their goal is to achieve the highest possible level of customer satisfaction and to avoid the risk of complaints, product failure, product recalls or loss of image.

PROCUREMENT LOGISTICS

Whether it is goods from all Europe or the rest of the world or exchanges of goods between our Coesfeld-Lette and Klieken logistics centres – our five-strong sourcing logistics team ensures everything runs like clockwork. With commercial and business factors in mind, our team coordinates the movement of goods by sea, air, rail and lorry, while keeping an eye on their prompt delivery and the respective quantities and quality to ensure an efficient internal flow.

STRATEGIC PROCUREMENT

Our Strategic Procurement team has more of a conceptual role in the designing of processes and systems, the implementation of projects and the organisation of sustainable production in the supply chain. They are in regular discussions with all the departments in the company to ensure efficient working methods and to advance our digital transformation. As part of our sustainability management, a very close-knit system has been built up over the years together with our partners so as to continuously check compliance with the applicable standards and to fulfil our high requirements in the supply chain.

OUR PURCHASING IN NUMBERS

employees

work in our Purchasing department.

12,000

orders

were placed in the 2022/2023 financial year.

260

suppliers

work with us on the basis of a trusting relationship.

years

on average, that we work with our suppliers.

THIS IS HOW WE WORK

ALL OVER THE WORLD

A sign of appreciation: Travelling to our production sites and personal discussions with suppliers is part of our everyday work.

INTERCULTURAL

We are in close contact with people all over the world every day. We are open to other cultures and celebrate our diversity!

DIGITAL

Whether it is price negotiations or data management – our processes are highly digitalised, fast and well thought out.

MOBILE

Our purchasing team has company mobile phones and laptops so that they have the best technical equipment - also when travelling for work purposes.

Eine Frau sitzt mit einem Laptop auf dem Schoß auf einem Schreibtisch.

WITH INTELLIGENT TOOLS

Our intelligent costing tools, PLM and supply chain management systems mean that our processes for costing and pricing are intelligent and fast.

Trust and fairness

LONGSTANDING PARTNERSHIPS

Many of our suppliers have been with us for years or decades. Our daily collaboration is characterised by our trust in our long-standing partners. We believe that fairness and consistency pay off and therefore work hard to intensively cultivate our long-standing business relationships. In addition, through consistent collaboration and the repeated use of selected suppliers by our Production department, we are able to ensure that our textile requirements are met.

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YOUR OPPORTUNITIES TO JOIN OUR COMPANY

For experienced professionals

DIRECT ENTRY

Do you already have experience of purchasing, quality development or quality assurance and are looking for a new challenge in a great team?

Apply directly

For school students

APPRENTICESHIP

In an apprenticeship as a Specialist for Wholesale and Export Retail you will learn the basics of commerce that you can then combine with your passion for fashion at our company.

More about apprenticeships

For school and university students

INTERNSHIP

An internship is a great way to get to know us and our various areas of work better. Several of our team members started their career with us this way!

More about internships

For graduates

TRAINEE PROGRAMME

In a 15-month trainee programme which is adapted to your individual requirements and focuses on the area of purchasing, we will work with you to shape the start of your career!

More about our trainee programme

For anyone interested in our company

CAREER CHANGERS

Do you have a solid basic understanding of business, a good knowledge of English and a passion for fashion? Are you looking to change careers or are interested in making a new start?

Apply directly!

OUR REQUIREMENTS

WILLINGNESS TO TRAVEL

We value personal contact with our suppliers and strengthen our trust-based partnerships by maintaining a regular presence in our countries of production. Visiting production sites enables us to check the production conditions on site and ensure that our standards are met.

CULTURAL OPENNESS

Respect, tolerance and a strong interest in other cultures and countries is a crucial basic requirement and something that we practice every day at Ernsting’s family. Only in this way can a trusting collaboration with our long-standing suppliers and partners, of which we are very proud, succeed.

LANGUAGE SKILLS

Very advanced and fluent English language skills are a crucial basic requirement for anyone wanting to join our Purchasing department, but also in our Quality Development, Procurement Logistics and Strategic Procurement teams. You always learn something new on the job and can develop further – even with regards to your language skills!