UNIVERSITY: University of Glasgow 2002 - 2006 BSc (Hons) Agriculture 2:2

Post MDS Permanent Role  - Allium Manager  - Spearhead International Ltd

MDS EXPERIENCE:

Spearhead International, Production Manager, May 2009 - November 2009

Responsibilities

• Achieving consistently high average sold yields of optimum produce and seed crops and at all costs avoiding low yielding fields within the mix
• Reporting to the business actual yield by field to agreed levels of accuracy
• Play a leading role in developing potato growing operations in order to generate progress in volume, cost per tonne, sales turnover and margin
• Assist the Production Director in expanding the farmed area each year, with no sacrifice on land quality or water availability
• Manage and improve soil fertility across all land farmed and ensure that all activities do not contravene the Cross Compliance Standards
• Develop and install commercially available technological and mechanical developments into the operations

Achievements

• •    Successfully managing the establishment of crops in line with the production plan
• •    Liaising with the Production Director and landlords to ensure crops receive correct rates of irrigation and are sprayed at correct time intervals
• •    Ensuring all staff and contractors are aware and comply with the companies’ health and safety policy, and operate in an efficient and safe manor at all times
• •    Ensuring downtime is kept to a minimal level by machinery checks and preventive maintenance
• •    Ensuring that all communication with staff is and remains open and inclusive

Greenvale AP, Group Lean Purchasing Manager, November 2008 - May 2009

The main aim of this role was to look at removing cost from the business, increasing value added income streams and improving cashflow by implementing group purchasing.

Responsibilities

• Assessing the current situation by examining the existing practice for ordering engineering consumables, uniforms/PPE and chemicals at all six factories across the UK
• Liaising with chief engineers, finance staff and site services to understand why the current practice is in place
• Co-ordinate and chair project meetings, and then present findings and recommendations to the Board of Directors and have valued input into the final decision
• Implement decisions and ensure a trouble free transition period
• Play an active part in finding and training my replacement at the end of the secondment
• Identify essential and desirable aspects that the business requires and configure a matrix to profile possible suppliers against
• Convince and sell the idea of group purchasing to individual sites/employees
• Understand the lean process and use lean techniques to guide the project
• Negotiating contract terms with possible suppliers

Achievements

• Indentified suitable suppliers
• Planned, organised and chaired meetings
• Negotiated cheaper prices, longer payment terms and a rebate on total spend
• Worked alongside the Environmental Manager to improve energy efficiency on sites
• Gained valuable knowledge in lean purchasing and negotiating via external training

G’s Marketing - Wissington site, Despatch Manager, April 2008 - Nov 2008

Responsibilities

My role was to ensure the successful day to day running of the site.  This included the following;

• Ensuring all products harvested were cooled within two hours of leaving the field
• Responsibility for the completion of all documents pertaining to the site i.e. safety check sheets, temperature/ weight documentation, delivery notes and load plans
• The training of staff members within their respective roles. This included the use of scanners, working the vacuum coolers, conveyers, forklifts, powered pallet trucks, loading and unloading lorries and some office based tasks with the secretary 
• The ordering of trays (specific to different supermarkets) to an informed estimation of product demand.  This was an important balance to strike as being under stocked leads to an inability to meet the required orders, whilst overstocking results in an excessive holding charge and difficulty in releasing other trays, so costly transport is needed to move trays between sites

Achievements

• Cost effective management of site, never exceeding the target budget
• Excellent communication with Barway customer service and transport team to reduce potential problems and the effective resolution of those which did arise
• Improvement of general management skills, in particular the supervision and training of staff with limited English
• Gaining further experience in negotiation, as well as in management decision making

Emmett’s (UK) ltd, Harvest Manager, October 2007 - April 2008

Responsibilities

• Supervising the extensive leek harvesting operation including the day to day management of 120 staff, which included the organisation of the transport for rig moves and associated equipment
• Completing rig records and staff time sheets to certify their accurate completion
• Liaising with the haulage company on a daily basis to negotiate the logistics of product delivery
• Working closely with the technical manager and QC team leader, to change specifications to suit the growing season
• In constant contact with the Account Manager to discuss field yields and production, therefore facilitating the planning of future orders for the pack house
• Compiling production information and presenting this to the Managing Director

Achievements

• Successful supervision of the leek harvest operation
• Improved efficiencies of production by reducing the staff quota per rig
• Redesigned the washing system on the rigs to improve quality standards
• Progression from initial job position of Harvest Supervisor to Harvest Manager following the transfer of the previous Harvest Manager