Caroline

• Karl
  Business Development Manager
• Charlotte
  Trading Assistant
• Gareth
  Distribution Operations Manager
• Michael
  Procurement Manager
• Geri
  Business Analyst
• Caroline
  Festive Plush Buyer
• Raj
  Buying Manager
• Caroline
  People Director
• Craig
  Buying Manager
• Feroz
  General Store Manager
• Martha
  Head of General Merchandise Marketing
• Emma
  Head of Food Business Development, Finance Team
• Andrew
  Transport Operations Manager

Caroline,
Festive Plush Buyer
Graduate Trading Scheme

Hi, I'm Caroline and I work in the team that buys all the toys for ASDA.

I'm one of the toy buyers and I buy all the festive soft toys for example cuddly toys for Valentines Day or reindeers and snowmen at Christmas. As a result, my desk is always piled high with all types of teddy bears and soft toys.

After graduating from Bournemouth University, I started at ASDA on the Trading Graduate Scheme in September 2006. My first role was as a Pricing Analyst. This is a critical role in ASDA, making sure we are the price leaders against the competition to ensure we are always offering the best value to our customers. This developed my skills, in particular my attention to detail and analytical approach. But it's not all a desk job, part of my role was to get out and about into stores and assess our competition through many visits - kind of undercover work. As part of the role I needed to challenge buyers constantly to ensure they provided the best price for our customers always. This gave me a great opportunity me to build relationships with all types of traders across the business.

I'm now in my second year at ASDA working in Toys - which gives me a completely different perspective on the business, whilst building on my experience and skills as a pricing analyst. There's plenty of opportunity to make an impact at ASDA, I was involved in producing the gift guide for toys which went out to millions of our customers, driving sales in our stores.

ASDA has really helped me to develop, there have been lots of opportunities for self learning and I feel I have really developed as a person. The opportunity to work in a variety of roles has enabled me to take a wider business view whilst developing my leadership skills at the same time. My future aim is to be a Senior Buyer either in food or general merchandise and the scheme will support me to reach this.

One of my passions is travelling and I aim to travel the world. At ASDA we can take advantage of a career break, so many colleagues take this opportunity to travel, something I'd maybe like to do in the future. Who knows - I've not yet had the opportunity to travel overseas with ASDA, however, with many of our suppliers and factories based in the Far East, this is a real possibility!