Avondale Foods is a leading food processing company of Fresh and Chilled products supplying leading retail businesses such as Marks & Spencer, Morrison’s and Waitrose in the UK.
The Head of Supply Chain is responsible for leading all end‑to‑end supply chain activities for a high-volume chilled food manufacturing site. This includes demand and supply planning, procurement, materials management, warehousing and logistics. The role ensures the right materials, products, and information flow through the business safely, efficiently, and in full alignment with customer expectations and site operational capabilities.
The role is accountable for delivering excellent service, optimised inventory, and cost-effective operations while ensuring compliance with food safety, retailer standards, and environmental requirements.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership
- Develop and lead the site supply chain strategy aligned with business growth, customer demand, and operational capability.
- Drive long-term capacity planning, materials readiness, and network optimisation for chilled distribution.
- Lead the site’s contribution to the Integrated Business Planning (IBP/S&OP) process.
Planning & Materials Management
- Own the demand and supply planning process, ensuring accurate short-, medium-, and long-term forecasts.
- Lead Master Production Scheduling (MPS) aligned with factory capabilities and labour plans.
- Ensure robust MRP processes and material availability for a highly perishable product range.
- Manage inventory levels such as raw materials, WIP, and finished goods—to meet availability targets while minimising waste and write-offs.
Procurement & Supplier Management
- Oversee procurement of raw materials, packaging, and indirect spend.
- Lead supplier performance, cost negotiations, and continuous improvement initiatives to drive procurement decision-making
- Ensure all suppliers meet food safety, sustainability, and technical compliance standards.
- Mitigate supply risk through dual sourcing, contingency planning, and robust contracts.
Warehouse & Logistics Operations
- Lead inbound, on & off-site storage, and outbound logistics for chilled goods.
- Manage 3PL partners, transport providers, and network carriers to deliver high OTIF (On Time In Full) performance.
- Ensure safe and compliant warehouse operations, including cold chain integrity.
- Drive optimisation of layout, flows, and automation to improve efficiency.
- Lead traceability functionality across systems and processes to ensure end-to-end visibility
Continuous Improvement & Digital Enablement
- Champion a culture of continuous improvement, lean principles, and waste reduction.
- Drive supply chain digitalisation including ERP, APS, and WMS optimisation.
- Improve data integrity and supply chain analytics to enable better decision-making.
Compliance, Food Safety & Sustainability
- Ensure all supply chain activities meet food safety and chilled chain compliance requirements.
- Maintain adherence to retailer codes of practice and audit standards.
- Lead sustainability initiatives such as packaging reduction, transport carbon reduction, and waste minimisation.
- Contribute to the development of a culture of Integrity, collaboration ‘do the right thing’ approach in all interactions.
- Ensure Food Safety compliance with company policies and regulatory requirements to remain audit-ready at all times.
Essential Criteria
- Extensive supply chain leadership experience in a large complex chilled, fresh, or short-shelf-life food manufacturing business.
- Strong understanding of retailer supply chains and service models (M&S, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, etc.).
- Proven experience managing large planning, materials, logistics, and procurement teams.
- Deep knowledge of ERP/MRP systems and supply chain planning tools.
- Strong leadership presence with ability to influence cross-functional teams.
- Experience in fast-paced, complex and highly variable demand environments.
- Degree in supply chain, operations, engineering, or similar discipline.
Desirable Criteria
- Experience working alongside a Factory General Manager model controlling the supply chain feed into and out of our factories.
- Knowledge of Dynamics 365/AX a distinct advantage.
- Lean or Six Sigma certification.
Personal Attributes
- Agile, decisive and adaptable - able to operate in a dynamic, high pressure environment while maintaining clarity, control, and excellent judgment.
- High personal accountability - sets uncompromising standards for themselves and others; does not tolerate mediocrity or repeated non-compliance.
- Strong leadership presence, able to influence cross functional teams, challenge constructively, and hold people to account at all levels.
- Clear, confident, and transparent communicator, skilled at explaining technical issues concisely to internal stakeholders and external partners including retailers.
- Calm under pressure, highly resilient.
- Proactive and prevention focused, constantly seeking to strengthen systems, anticipate risks, and eliminate root causes to prevent firefighting.
- Collaborative, building strong cross functional alignment and promoting joint ownership of standards.
- Resilient, determined, and improvement driven, with the tenacity to lead transformation, raise standards, and embed a strong culture across the business.
KPI’s & Success Measures
- OTIF (On Time In Full) delivery
- Forecast accuracy
- Cost savings across fresh produce, RM’s and packaging
- Below budgetary targets for material spend
- Waste & write-off levels
- Logistics cost per unit
- Material & supplier performance
** NO AGENCIES PLEASE**