Job Description

FRESH PRODUCE PACK HOUSE OPERATIONS MANAGER

Dearnsdale Fruit is a family of dedicated soft fruit farmers in the Staffordshire countryside. We use state-of-the-art technology to sustainably grow, pick, pack and distribute world-class berries to UK and international supermarkets.

As our Packhouse Operations Manager you'll lead a team of up to 80 of our dedicated staff who pack more than 6,000 tonnes of soft fruit annually. Our packhouse operation has developed organically over the last 20 years...we want you to bring in knowledge of external best practice in fresh produce packing along with a passion for operational excellence to drive-up service quality and optimise, automate and digitise our processes.

What you can expect to be responsible for as our Packhouse Operations Manager:

You'll be on the shop floor in the packhouse and our warehouses...managing production, looking for opportunities for continuous improvement and identifying risks that will impact production efficiencies.

You'll own the maintenance of our packhouse equipment...ensuring it is fit for purpose, available on demand, and where there is a business case, new technology is implemented.

You'll be developing your team of packhouse staff...recruiting new talent for key roles, coaching/mentoring your QCs/line leaders, embedding a culture of service quality, food safety and performance managing under performers.

You'll co-ordinate the organisation of your packhouse staff's working schedules...ensuring the packhouse has the capacity to meet demand and staff working hours are always compliant with the farms' ethical code of practice and legal requirements coping with the seasonality of the produce peaks and troughs.

You'll monitor health and safety...ensuring regulatory compliance.

You'll own the packhouse budget and monitor production costs...providing the data to input into business processes and to provide actionable insights to improve business performance.

You'll manage packhouse related procurement...to ensure items are available on demand and waste is eliminated.

You'll be assisting in the managing of the visits by external third parties...acting as "front of house" for the packhouse for customer visits, and the host for external auditors.

You will be working incredibly closely with the business owners on how to drive the operational aspects forward.

Knowledge, skills and behaviours that will matter most for this role:

Your ability to lead and motivate a diverse team of packhouse staff.

Your knowledge of external best practice in food packing and how to apply this in practice to successfully implement the changes required to drive operational excellence in a packhouse environment.

Your ability to coach and mentor staff to improve their own personal performance.

Your ability to deftly communicate to delight customers visiting the packhouse and to satisfy demands of Directors of the business and the external auditors.

Your attention to detail to ensure outcomes are delivered on time and are right first time, and when processes fail, they're changed to ensure the same thing won't fail again.

Your strong sense of ownership so if there is an issue with the operation of the packhouse, even if it's late at night you won't hesitate to devote the time required to drive the issue to resolution with a potential physical attendance on site on your scheduled day off.

Essential pre-requisites you'll have:

A minimum of 5-years experience as an operations manager in a fresh produce soft fruit packing environment.

BRC compliance awareness and ability to host a BRC auditor or third-party auditor and correctly answer questions on food safety, and quality, integrity audits.

Things that are desirable:

IOSH Level 3.

Speak languages such as Russian, Romanian.

Job Type: Permanent

Pay: 70,000.00 per year

Benefits:

Free parking On-site parking Referral programme Relocation assistance
Ability to commute/relocate:

Stafford ST18 9DH: reliably commute or be willing to relocate with an employer-provided relocation package (required)
Experience:

soft fruit : 5 years (required)
Work Location: In person