Bring happiness with every bite! 

It’s a purpose that every one of our colleagues, all around the world believes in. And while we’re all unique, we also share the same values. 

Each of our values is important on its own. In combination they’re incredibly powerful.  

Our values have deep personal meaning to us. They’re part of who we are and what we stand for as an employer.  

Living our pladis values is a key part of success, look out for questions in your interview that link to these key pladis values.  

What will this role achieve?  

The Procurement team is made of 120 professionals working across the world to create competitive advantage for pladis through mid-term sourcing strategies and strong supplier relationships. Our 2025 Procurement vision aims at delivering more value for the business along 5 key business deliverables: Supply Continuity, Cost Out, Cash Flow optimization, Sustainability and Supplier Innovation.  

 We work as a matrix organization, with Global Categories leveraging the pladis global size and Local Procurement ensuring a strong connection and proximity with our 6 regions (UK & Ireland, Europe & Emerging markets, Middle East – North Africa – India, Turkey –Central Asia, North America AND APAC).  

 Within Global Categories, the Packaging Category Manager reports directly to the Packaging Categories Lead, who in turn reports into the CPO.   (S)He drives (in alignment with Regional Procurement teams) for the CORRUGATED Category (est 80 M£ spend).   

What will be your key deliverables?  

• Designing, formalizing & implementing a 2 to 3 years forward sourcing strategy, after ensuring full alignment with the business strategies  

• Implementing all Procurement-driven processes & tools within his/her categories  

• Building strong relationships across all pladis functions (R&D, Operations, Engineering, Finance, Marketing), influencing pladis strategy in relation with corrugated suppliers  (competitivity, innovation, sustainability) and working with all key stakeholders to accelerate project implementation  

• Driving Procurement teams in regions to ensure a smooth and efficient implementation of global sourcing strategies, while promoting the sharing of best practices and leading benchmarks across regions  

• Delivering top class results across all 5 strategic dimensions of our mission:  

• A 3-year productivity roadmap to achieve sustainable savings of a minimum of 3.5% per year, through reformulation of our materials or negotiation with our suppliers  

• A clear sustainability roadmap (jointly with R&D) to reach the goals set by pladis on its path to carbon neutrality and other sustainability priorities, while creating differentiation in the market   

• A clear innovation roadmap (jointly with R&D) to create extra value for consumers across our strategic innovation platforms  

• A robust supply continuity plan to assess, anticipate and prevent any disruption to our supply chain   

• A strong target to improve cash flow across our operations (payables, stocks of finished goods…).  

• More specifically with regards to the Category, you will be responsible to:  

• Map together with Regional Procurement our requirements for the next 3 years, in order to anticipate our needs as the market evolves. This includes looking at innovative packaging which matches our long-term sustainability roadmap (needs analysis)  

• Map the market to identify new suppliers in those strategic areas, able to challenge our incumbent suppliers (market analysis)  

• Define our Commodities cover strategy (on paper board), jointly with the Procurement Head for Financial Hedging when done through financial instruments. Link with Procurement teams in Regions to ensure timely execution of our cover strategy when done through physical contracts.  

• Build a strong cost-modelling program with key suppliers to ensure prices are directly linked to specifications design and commodity covers or indices (board, energy).  

• Share benchmarks and best practices across all regions  

• Define jointly with Procurement in the Regions a Sourcing Strategy (productivity roadmap, innovation roadmap, sustainability roadmap, supplier strategy)  

• Build strong SRM (Supplier Relationship Management) with global & strategic suppliers. This includes setting up & monitoring a robust supplier evaluation program.  

• Negotiate frame agreements with Global Suppliers, support negotiations in all regions and align supplier selection with Procurement in the Regions  

• Finalize contracts with global suppliers, collecting all necessary requirements (technical, service level, expected KPIs) from the various stakeholders. Support Procurement teams in the Regions with the contract execution when significant breaches of service / quality are identified  

• Identify improvement opportunities, develop should-cost models, set up continuous improvement targets to drive savings & value  

• Lead AOP (budgeting process) for commodity assumptions, and key cost-model assumptions. 

Bring your experience.  

Essential 

• A Bachelor’s degree  

• Successful experience in Procurement (a minimum of 5 years is expected)  

• Ability to deal with ambiguity within a complex and multicultural environment  

• Proven ability to work with cross-functional team, with a collaborative mindset.  

• Natural leadership & influence skills  

• Strong analytical skills  

• Ability to be hands on operationally as well as building a long term strategic vision  

• English is a must   

• Advanced Excel & Power Point skills  

• Available to work in Chiswick 3 days a week / travel on request to factories & suppliers.  

Desirable: 

• A Master’s degree  

• Proficiency in another language  

• Previous work experience in matrix procurement organisation.