Benny Hill

• Negotiated terms of business acquisitions to increase business base and solidify market presence.
• Directed market expansions to propel business forward, meet changing customer needs.
• Studied market to determine optimal pricing of goods and capitalize on emerging opportunities.
• Formed senior leadership team through rigorous interviews and extensive candidate research.
• Directed technological improvements, reducing waste and business bottlenecks.
• Oversaw business-wide changes to modernize procedures and organization.
• Maintained P&L and shouldered corporate fiscal responsibility.

The Country Road Group is one of Australia's largest specialty fashion retailers with a market leading position in the mid to upper tier of the segment. Comprising of five iconic brands - Country Road, Mimco, Trenery, Witchery and Politix, with sales exceeding $1bn AUD.

Selected Responsibilities/Achievements:

• Responsible for managing the budget and forecasting for the Witchery fashion brand, sales ~$300 mil AUD
• Responsible for financial business partnering with Witchery executive group - across Design, Planning, Buying, Visual Merchandising, Retail Operations and Marketing.
• Responsible for managing the budget and forecasting for CRG Omni-Channel Fulfilment Centre (OFC), with a cost base of ~$20mil AUD
• Consultant for the OFC's Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA)

The Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American worldwide consumer products company focused on the production, distribution and provision of household, health care and personal products, such as soaps, detergents, and oral hygiene products (including toothpaste and toothbrushes). The Australian business generates revenue of ~$1bn AUD with its core customers including Coles, Woolworths, Metcash and Pharmacy (Chemist Warehouse, Priceline, Terry White) retailers.

Working as the Supply Chain business partner within the Customer Development Sales Team, providing end-2-end supply chain expertise and support internally, whilst driving collaboration with C-P retailers to ensure strategic and operational initiatives in place to support customer service quality and cost. Reporting to the regional director of Supply Chain, I was driven by a continuous improvement philosophy, aimed at removing status quo thinking and delivering superior team accountability and productivity.

Selected Responsibilities/Achievements:

• Responsible for collaboration with C-P's retailers to identify and drive end-2-end improvements; maximising on-shelf availability and decrease costs:
  
  • • Project lead of stock availability initiatives with key customer accounts; preferred supplier key lead with Coles, Nielsen & RSI on “Good2Great” & “Excellent Availability” initiatives.
    • Project lead sustainability initiatives; “LockNPop” aimed to reducing plastic pallet wrap waste
    • Project lead on Logistics Terms initiative to reset `$30mAUD logistics discount given to retailers.
    • Aided improvement in Advantage Group Survey Supplier ranking to 2nd in 2015 and maintained top 5 ranking.
• Drove opportunities to implement end-2-end value across C-P and customer supply chains:
  
  • Drove Prepack / Off-location display process improvement initiatives to streamline end-2-end co-ordination and execution.
    
  • Ideation to implementation of Batch Order Processing (BOP) project to improve EDI compliance, allow more efficient order processing, warehousing/freight & improved service levels to retailers.
  • Designed and implemented product lifecycle initiatives to reduce cost to serve; Designed & embedded Product Lifecycle Transition Management process, reducing complexity and cost during product ranging reviews.
    
  • Demand / Supply synchronisation 
    • "Next Gen" - Drove project to aggregate big data from various internal and external sources to better synchronise supply and demand and more rapidly identify and resolve potential service issues.
    • Drove regular initiatives to improve forecast/demand planning, embedding root-cause analysis and standardised reporting tools with formalised process. Resulted in sustained improvement in demand planning accuracy and knowledge retention.
      
  • Implemented optimisation of promotional plan reporting for sales team; to improve planning, execution and review of promotional plans and avoid promotional clashing and errors.
  • Drove replenishment initiatives to increase warehouse efficiencies and truck utilisation.
    • Business case and negotiation lead with retailers to avoid cost increases and instead find and drive efficiency offsets
  • Designed and implemented Master Data Alignment process to allow aggregation and synchronised between Gs1, SAP, retailer data.
• Drove Knowledge Retention initiatives to reduce corporate knowledge leak within the supply chain & sales account team.
• Management Coles Vendor Replenishment Planners (VRPs), providing leadership and support to ensure high quality service and support to customer and career development of incumbent.
• Mentored sales account team members to help personal and career growth.
  
• SME during implementation of Google software.
  
• Systems SME: SAP, Tableau, Quik, Google, Lotus Notes, Google
  

SPOS is a leading provider of point of sale and creative marketing of retail solutions that are designed to enhance the overall appearance of the products and ultimately stimulate sales. Generating revenue of $40mil AUD their core customers include Red Bull, Skins, Optus, Coles and Woolworths

Working on various value add projects across the SPOS supply chain and retail divisions required rapid rapport building in order to deliver outcomes within the 3-month contract. Particular deliverables around go-2-market strategy, EBITDA, product life cycle, procurement and inventory management. Daily contact with executive management as well as stakeholders across all functions. Comprehensive assessment of the supply chain with recommendation of key improvement initiatives.

Selected Responsibilities/Achievements:

• Supply chain health assessment encompassing local and international purchasing, warehousing and transport. Key areas of opportunity identified with identified savings of $1mAUD though the reduction of footprint, changes to selling strategy and improved order-to-invoice process.
  
• Project lead of the Sydney warehouse relocation, including transportation of 1500 SKUs to new premises and stock take
  
• Root cause analysis and rectification of significant historical financial issues and introduction of improved process and policy.
  
• Project lead on warehouse optimization facilitating a continuous improvement/Kaisen philosophy to increase warehouse efficiency and customer service.
  

Schneider Electric is a global specialist in energy management with operations in more than 100 countries. In Australia, its core businesses Clipsal, SCADA and APC, which generate in excess of $1.2bn AUD per annum by providing the residential, manufacturing, resource and government sectors with efficient energy solutions.

Working as the finance business partner within the logistics executive team of S-E’s complex matrix organization with multiple business units and cross-functional engagement. Reporting to executive management; Pacific zone logistics GM, CFO and Regional Finance Asia. Focus on driving strategy and productivity whilst managing a small team and internal stakeholders across the multiple BUs. Utilizing business transformation skills paramount during SAP implementation and day-2-day project sized objectives.

Selected Responsibilities/Achievements:

• Manage monthly, quarterly and annual budgeting and month-end reporting process for The Pacific zone logistics $85mil AUD cost base and 200mAUD of inventory.
  
• Monitor performance of operations, identify areas of opportunity and work with stakeholders to achieve productivity, including $1.5mAUD saving through rationalization of 3rd party contract labour providers.
  
• Preparation and lobbying internal stakeholders for central hub regional distribution centre (Hub DC). Detailed scenario analysis, risk mitigation studies and business case prepared and presented ($15mAUD CAPEX)
  
• Aide in preparation of Commercial Logistics Offer (CLO) to internal stakeholder and customer providing for improved go-2-market capabilities and facilitating Hub DC.
  
• Aide in business critical delivery of SAP ERP – Gap analysis, process mapping, implementation
  
• Development and deployment of CAPEX/OPEX business cases. ($1kAUD-$15mAUD)
  
• Implementation of key management reporting – financial and non -financial metrics (demand planning, inventory, DC operations, transport, customer satisfaction & quality)
  
• Member of S-E Finance Council – alignment financial principles and best practice through best practice internal auditing.
  

PepsiCo is a world leading FMCG with a strong global presence in both the beverages and snackfood markets. In Australia its brands include Smiths, Red Rock Deli, Doritos, Grainwaves and Sakata and drive revenue in excess of $1bn AUD.

Working within a logistics team dispersed Australia wide, requiring the building of strong relationships with internal customers to better manage financial reporting and enact operational procedural change in order to drive increased productivity. Active member of the supply chain strategic planning committee and central warehouse implementation team aimed at providing capacity for sustainable growth and enacting better go-to-market potential respectively.

Selected Responsibilities/Achievements:

• Managing annual budgeting process for the logistics $80mil AUD cost base
  
• Management of the Period End Reporting and Period Forecasting
  
• Driving productivity of the Cost To Serve model through
  
• Increased automation and reporting accuracy
  
• Enhanced reporting tool implementation
  
• Preparing and presenting detailed analysis to the Executive Committee, benchmarking Smiths Snackfood’s manufactured COGS against its world-wide PepsiCo counterparts
  
• Preparation of CAPEX proposals
  
• Investigating and highlighting the merits of LEAN and Sigma 6 principles in driving logistics efficiency
  
• Increasing productivity of the Service and Distribution (S&D) function via the streamlining and automating of period reporting process through
  
• Increased incorporation of SAP
  
• Increasing data integrity checks
  
• Consolidating of duplicate data sourcing and reporting tools
  
• Designing, implementing and managing a Lead Time Management Tool enabling better visibility of line haul shipments through the supply chain, resulting in a reduction of 3 Days on Hand (DOH) across the national network
  
• Providing adhoc analysis to cross-functional teams, including:
  
  • Planning
  • Procurement
  • Manufacturing

Barbeques Galore is Australia’s leading barbeque, heating & outdoor furniture retailer with over 45 stores nationwide and annual sales exceeding $100 million AUD.

Working in a small team to aid executive by providing relevant reporting & analysis. The building of strong cross-functional relationships with both functional managers and their reports was a necessity in this role. Presenting in front of external suppliers as well a peer group. Common tasks included the creation of standard reports including weekly sales, logistics report and quarterly sales review. Additional experience gained through involvement in the implementation of Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP)

Selected Responsibilities/Achievements:

• Preparation of a full P&L operating budget for 45 stores.
  
• Member and aide to the SKU rationalization team, contributing towards reducing complexity of BBQ range for USA and AUS markets resulting in a significant cost saving.
  
• Member and aide to the Consolidated DC Project Team, aimed at finding a 3PL solution in China. Designed RFQ, compiled responses, assessed capabilities and provided a recommendation resulting in a $1mil saving to the business.
  
• Designing and implementing Shipping Management Database, automating tracking of orders and shipments from Chinese suppliers, exception flagging mechanism and report extraction
  
• Designing and implementing Licensee Sales Reporting Tool with the Licensee team. Resulted in providing visibility and comparability licensee sales team.
  
• Drove initiatives including using reports derived from the Licensee Sales Reporting Tool to identify to CFO need for rationalization.
  
• Providing store rationalization analysis resulting in the closure of non-contributing stores and a significant cost saving with minimal impact on overall sales.
  
• Providing adhoc analysis to cross-functional teams, including:
  
• Sales/Marketing – Promotional sales forecasts & promotion reviews
  
• HR – store wage cost analysis
  
• Logistics – Shipping and DIFOT related analysis