UNIVERSITY: University of Glasgow 2003-2007, MA (Soc.Sci.) (Hons) Geography 2.ii

Post MDS Permanent Role - Customer Planner  -  Natures Way Foods Ltd
    
MDS EXPERIENCE:   

Product Development Specialist at Natures Way Food, May 2009 - November 2009

Responsibilities:

• To develop, coordinate and manage the Tesco prepared salad category to ensure continuous long-term growth
• Project manage the launching of new products as well as the development of existing ones
• To have a complete understanding of what is included in Tesco’s prepared salads range and how they perform
• Input and create new costing models to deliver margin enhancing profitable products for NWF and Tesco
• Attend daily WIBIT to drive specification conformance process
• Be aware of what competitors are doing in the prepared salad area, and carry out weekly benchmarking
• Use Dunnhumby database information to drive Range Review process
• To build a relationship with the customer

Assistant Fruit Buyer at Waitrose, November 2008 - May 2009

Responsibilities:

• To play an active role in the Fruit Buying team, and gain an understanding of the structure of the business and the role of a buyer
• To actively buy the Organic Citrus and Grape lines to agreed KPIs
• To review the Organic Fruit assortment, determining the lines and suppliers involved and to review their sales performance weekly
• Worked with the supplier and grower to redesign a products packaging and submitted these changes to the business

Achievements:

• Negotiated an annual saving of £19,000 from the post-redesigned product
• Ran a successful Organic Orange promotion, co-operating with the supplier and communicating with other departments in Waitrose to do so
• Provided an action plan on how to improve Organic Fruit’s performance and potential consequences of implementation on other areas and through this gained an understanding of the Organic Fruit market
• Gained a competent understanding of the many computer systems that Waitrose use
• Gained an understanding of what Waitrose’s position is in the marketplace and determined points of difference versus competitors for a report presented to my line manager
• Worked for one week within the fruit and vegetable section of a Waitrose branch in Farnham

Quality Technologist at Cornerways Nursery, May 2008 - October 2008

Responsibilities:

• Primarily to ensure the tomatoes that are supplied to customers were of top quality, conformed to relevant legislation and met customer specifications thus ensuring that the highest possible Quality Service Level score was achieved
• Day-to-day management of the QC team ensuring intake and despatch checks were carried out, as well as shelf-life and production line checks
• If rejection did occur, completion of supermarket feedback form and claim form if necessary
• Arranged effective communication of all customer quality comments and organised corrective actions if required
• Played an integral role in the management and development of the label room systems
• Took part in crop examination to identify and provide fore warning of any quality issues
• Part of a weekend ‘on call’ rota in case of any packhouse queries or rejection
• Leased with the Technical Manager to manage and develop the sites quality systems

Achievements

• Built up and trained a whole new QC team
• Took part in a very successful BRC audit (Grade A)
• Modified and developed new quality systems to ensure compliance with the new BRC standard
• Knowledge of despatch and logistics systems
• Day at Royal Norfolk Show to promote Cornerways Nursery and British Tomatoes to the general public

Commercial Support at JP Fresh Ltd, October 2007 - April 2008

Responsibilities:

• Overall project was to work on the carbon footprint of the company, as well as to find ways to reduce their environmental impact
• Assisted the Commercial Director on sales analysis and customer presentations
• Conducted product range profiles for the Marketing department
• Allocated and confirmed stocks and availabilities to the sales team
• Downloaded supermarket orders using EDI and then communicated these to the packhouse and commercial teams
• Liaised with customers for product codes
• Set up new consignments using Rubicon
• Matched prices to ensure invoices were correct
• Developed a customer database for all contact details
• Obtained QC reports from the intranet and sent these to the growers

Achievements:

• Calculated JP’s Carbon Footprint and wrote a report on ways the company could reduce emissions through alternative fuels and transport, which was then presented to the board. Also, with the help of the carbon trust, provided energy saving initiatives within the office
• Helped integrate new support functions (i.e. excel templates, etc.)
• QC/QA training at all stages to help gain product knowledge