Materials Planner

About Zespri

Zespri is the world’s largest marketer of kiwifruit with over 800  people in New Zealand and throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas.
 

We  help people, communities and the environment thrive through the goodness of kiwifruit. We sit at the heart of an interconnected industry working with 2,800 growers in New Zealand and 1,500 growers in Italy, France, Greece, South Korea and Japan. We supply the world’s healthiest little superfruits to people in more than 50 countries. We are fruit on a mission.
 

Our values are at the heart of everything we do. We commit to guardianship; putting people, the community, and the environment first. We are results-driven, challenging ourselves to grow and deliver better value. We cultivate personal connections, listening and acting with empathy and humility – and treating each other better for it.
 

We are growing quickly, driven by our success in engaging more and more consumers and by offering the world’s best kiwifruit 12 months of the year. We have bold ambitions and aim to grow sales from approximately $3 billion in 2018 to $4.5 billion by 2025.
 

To achieve our goals, we’re empowering our people to achieve their goals, designing our work for wellbeing, through flexible work practices and self-leadership.
 

We have bold ambitions for the future and we want all of our people to live and perform at their best.
 

About The Role

The Material Planner is responsible for the overall inventory and availability of packaging materials consistent with production schedules to enable production packing to flow smoothly, and direct sales of packaging materials to the market.The Material Planner’s responsibilities include following up on packaging material specifications, creating and maintaining inventory schedules, coordinating with internal departments, and managing external stakeholder relations. This implies responsibilities at the end-to-end planning process of packaging requirements, both long-term and short-term.

A successful Material Planner should be able to ensure the appropriate supply of cost-efficient and high-quality packaging materials required to maintain steady production and product delivery

Accountabilities

Material Planning 

• Determining the requirements of packaging materials and generating purchase orders, both on dependent and independent requirements
• Planning and overseeing the supply and delivery of packaging materials and commodity materials – both long-term planning and short-term call-off
• Ensuring the consistent and adequate supply of packaging materials necessary for production (short-term call-off) and long-term material requirements for capacity planning and supplier reservations and commitments
• Determining inventory policy for the different packaging material types and aligning with demand profiles
• Tracking production volumes and monitoring customer demands on packaging materials  (Direct sales) and purchasing trends 
• Liaising with production scheduling, demand planning, suppliers, and customer support
• Managing packaging inventory issues, obsolete and excess stocks/shortages, related to schedule changes and cancellations
• Preparing performance reports and tracking KPIs
• Help with additional supply chain projects
• Back up & support other team members within the supply chain discipline

 
Continuous improvement

• Manage and maintain planning software and determine optimization parameters.
• In addition, the Material Planner is responsible for improving procedures and making recommendations based on its analyses, maintaining and measuring performance, and root cause analysis.
   

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain/Logistics, Business Management, Finance
• Ideally 1 or 2 years experience in Planning functions within FMCG, Food Production, or Retail (Material Planning, Production Planning or Scheduling,  Supply Chain Management, Inventory Management, Purchasing, or a related position)
• Strong Analytical and Problem-solving skills 
• Assertive and Pragmatic
• Strong organizational and time management skills
• Good communication skills, both verbal and written English
• Proven knowledge of manufacturing, planning methodologies and supply  chain management
• Demonstrated Planning & Prioritization capabilities 
• Knowledge of ERP (SAP) and planning software is preferred
• Proven experience managing many stakeholders
• Customer Oriented 
• Good Business Acumen 
• Excellent presentation skills and interpersonal skills
• Ability to think in processes and structures and at the same time be very pragmatic and flexible.
   

What's In It For You

• Competitive overall remuneration package, including a Short-Term Incentive scheme opportunity.
• FlexWELL flexible work ethos
• Additional paid annual leave day per year (Zespri Day).
• Additional paid volunteer day to volunteer within your community (Volunteer Time).
• Global Life and Permanent Disability Insurance.
• Group Medical Insurance benefits.

Zespri is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer - Minority/Female/Disability/ Veteran.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

Agency

Zespri will not accept applications or contact from any temporary staffing agency, placement service or professional recruiter for this vacancy (“Agency”).

Where Zespri requires the support of an agency to fulfil a vacancy, we will proactively seek this support from our network of Agencies.  We respectfully ask that you do not contact Zespri or any of its affiliates/employees regarding vacancies, and reserve the right not to reply.

Zespri will not be responsible for, and will not pay, any fees, commissions or other payments related to such unsolicited resumes.