RAJESH SHARMA

• Company Overview: A turnaround opportunity with company making losses for the last few years. Huge concern around employee retention. Company was looking for a subject matter expert with hands on approach, commercially astute (managing commodity procurement function) who can add value in the manufacturing facilities across AU &NZ (10 plants) by controlling cost and bring discipline in cost management. Turnover ~$290m.

Key achievements:

• Successfully Lead the turnaround & have taken various cost benefit decisions to bring discipline in managing cost and successfully delivering profit. In the last +2.5yrs, CopRice has managed to deliver from $5.0m loss to $17.0m profit. Total turnaround ~$22.0m.
• Mentored finance team members, fostering a culture of professional growth and skill development within the department. No employee turnover in finance during my period.
• Lead - 3 yrs Strategy and oversaw deployment of strategic business plans to accomplish accounting, compliance and revenue targets. Company has delivered ahead of strategy.
• Lead & successfully delivered commodity procurement saving with closely managing market risks. Helped team to develop negotiation skills and take right calls at right time. Make sound decisions to reduce material cost and increase margins. This enabled sales teams to manage pricing and make calculated judgements to win customers.
• Drove revenue growth by developing pricing strategies that maximised both sales volume and profitability. Key emphasis remains on long term market share and customer management.
• Introduced production efficiency measurement tool (cost/ton) to drive production discipline and control cost. Identified areas of improvement & implemented cost saving measures across various departments (included CAPEX plan to drive cost out). This has brought improvement in cost forecast and supported reduction in production variances.
• Work hand in hand with Senior Leadership team and ensuring full support in delivering their result. Involved regular brainstorming meetings to reach at a most beneficial outcome.
• Directed the budget and forecast preparation process & introduced profitability by site. This provided a true profitability by site and enabled us to make the right call by site. Successfully delivered results with no surprises and haven't failed once in delivering the forecast. Managed P&L and shouldered corporate fiscal responsibility.
• Successfully lead the SAP integration for Prydes(recently acquired Equine entity-Turnover ~$40m).
• Managed relationships with external auditors, ensuring a smooth and efficient annual audit process.
• Improved Balance sheet to launch into future growth. Facilitated successful acquisition of Branded Pet business enhancing company's strength in branded pet business and opened up potential future growth.

• Company Overview: A turnaround opportunity with company made a loss of PGK95m in 2019. Owned by National Super funds (PE), the company was in a difficult situation. Joined them as a consultant to support the change. The role was moved to full time CFO (within a month). Very challenging atmosphere (during COVID), with high debt (banks & suppliers), low productivity, heavy stock losses, lower customer confidence and lack of expertise available in the business. I found myself a right fit to lead the change. My Subject matter expert, resilience and to-do approach was tested many times. My previous experience in the similar industry (Flour & feed mills, Poultry etc.) proved very beneficial to successfully deliver a great turnaround. Manufacturing facilities included Flour & Feed mills, Poultry operations (Layer and table eggs) with two hatcheries and a processing plant, Crocodile farms -exporting skins to Hermes and other Europe & Japanese customers. Turnover ~$200m (PGK480m)

Key achievements:

• Successfully Lead the turnaround & took various measures to achieve a great turnaround from a loss of PGK95m to PGK14m profit with a strategy to grow to PGK40m company. Total turnaround ~$45.0m (PGK109m).
• Increased the bench strength by filling in key finance positions and laying the foundation by adequately structuring the finance department. Key emphasis was on retaining the knowledge and further enhanced the skill set. Fostered a culture of trust and openness to drive the change. No employee turnover in finance during my period.
• Developed 3 yrs Strategy plan and successfully presented to the Board and the owners (PE). The plan included CAPEX deployment ( in stages) to build strong manufacturing base with reduced cost of production.
• Developed and improved relationship with vendors. Paid off their debts with in a record time and this further added to vendor confidence. Developed alternate vendors to have an improved negotiation and change in their terms. This further helped us to manage our working capital.
• Lead & successfully delivered commodity procurement with closely managing market risks. Helped procurement team to develop negotiation skills and take right calls at right time. Renegotiated the Wheat contracts at better price and created alternative vendors to challenge the cost.
• Successfully increased the customer confidence by directly engaging with them and ensured the delivery on time is adhered to and pricing is competitive. We had managed to increase our customer book, which included Nestle and other bakery houses in PNG.
• Streamlined financial processes by implementing automation and reducing manual tasks, leading to efficiency and accuracy. Worth to mention that with system and reporting improvement we could achieve to get the accurate cost of production. Our reporting becomes more reliable and further supported our profit delivery. A great improvement in Board's, Banks (ANZ & Westpac), KPMG (consultants) and owners in the numbers and in the business.
• Tracked cash flow and with corrective actions taken across the business, it had started to improve. Successfully managed the Cash flow requirements during COVID, where the commodity cost touched all time high. Worked simultaneously on volume growth ( reliability -DOI), revenue growth ( customer/pricing management-DSO) and cost reduction (procurement and vendor relationship-DPO), to improve cash flow.
• Presented financial results to board members and investors during quarterly meetings, maintaining transparency in communication regarding company's performance.
• Work hand in hand with Senior Leadership team and ensuring full support in delivering their result. Involved regular brainstorming meetings to reach at a most beneficial outcome.
• Managed relationships with external auditors (Deloitte), ensuring a smooth and efficient annual audit process.
• Improved Balance sheet to launch into future growth.
• Leading the forecast and Budgetary process. A revised forecast is in place to ensure MHL operation is focused and aligned with overall strategy.
• Key focus on developing the team capability. Recruited key finance positions to support the business operations. Ensuring that the finance team work closely as a business partner to MHL operations and drive the change.

• Company Overview: A contracting position for 6 months originated due to restructure which resulted in CEO and CFO to exit the business. Company had mismanagement of company operations and finances. The role was to fix the issues and fill in as a CFO. The new CFO and CEO were recruited from China and there was gap in between their joining. Company had five manufacturing facilities including Biscuit plant, Snacks plant and Pepsi bottling plant. A challenging assignment to ensure the current state is fixed and results improved. Total turnover of international division ~$150m.

Key achievements:

• Lead the overall finance and IT function. Actively involved in the overall transformation process including fixing the processes and ensuring results improve.
• Developed forecast model for the group and aligned various processes to achieve it. The results had improved and provided better visibility of the cost. Team focus changed and resulted in better control over business operations.
• Developed local skill set and filled the knowledge gap to enhance further skill sets. Empowering the finance team with open and frank communication. It really helped to understand the business and find opportunities to fix the business.
• Developed Strategic plan with the CEO and ensured we had right resources for implementing.
• Improved monthly, quarterly and yearly reporting. Developed margin reports for each category which benefitted business to finalize new pricing strategy. This helped teams to understand the cause and effect on the bottom line.
• Led cost reduction projects and challenged the status quo. Reduced the overheads by finding alternate suppliers and controlling the usage/cost.
• Improved working capital by focusing on DSO, DOI and DPO. As a result, Cash flow improved in a very short time which had resulted in paying off substantial debt. Key focus remained on improving cash management and reducing interest cost. Pre-settled few bank loans to lower debt. Negotiated a revised line of credit with the bank which will further strengthen the Group cash situation.
• CAPEX management and prioritizing the projects to maximize the available resources.

• Company Overview: A permanent position in company’s international division-seconded to PNG and subsequently moved back Head office (Sydney) and led the APAC region. Company had five manufacturing facilities in PNG (Flour, Feed mills, Bakery and Snacks plant), three in Fiji -Poultry operations, Ice cream plant and a feed mill. New Caledonia operations included a flour mill, bakery and a Snack plant. Other sales offices in Philippines, China & Singapore.Total turnover of international division ~$800m.
• Managing the International Consolidated monthly reporting, planning and forecasting process including commentary and insight into results. The process was managed in BPC (reporting tool).
• Business partnering to all GF International entities. (China, Singapore, Philippines, PNG, Fiji, and New Caledonia). Worked closely with local SLT to support them whenever required. Travelled regularly to APAC countries.
• Finalizing Budget and forecast for international with Strategy plan (3-5 yrs).
• Leading the delivery of continuous improvement initiatives to improve reporting processes, developing, and improving business models and tools to assist in KPI and variance analysis. Worked closely with country operation’s team and analysing various CAPEX and measuring ROI. Lead developing Fiji poultry expansion model and finalising board papers.
• Rendered country CFO duties on various occasions and provided support to country GM and country SLT.
• Leading the International Head office team which includes Business analyst, financial accountant and Planning and Performance Reporting analyst.
• Working closely with IT and BU finance teams to develop informative dashboards, reporting packs and analysis using BI tools.
• Support to regional Sales teams for developing new rebates and discounts model in Syspro. Setting up customer margin reports to support them in their setting up pricing etc.
• Being Subject matter expert led the BPC implementation consolidation across international countries, which also included mapping Syspro and Sage accounting systems to SAP database for consolidation.

• Company Overview: Company was one of the highly successful integrated poultry-processing business employing around 4,200 employees nationally with an annual turnover of $600m. The Company supplied the national grocery, food service and industrial markets under the well-established Steggles brand in each mainland state.

• Company Overview: The group had pioneered the manufacture of paving blocks in UAE. The company was established in 1987 and expanded to manufacture Precast Concrete Products. The group also includes its Engineering division, which had established itself in UAE market by its quality and timely completion of jobs. The group is an ISO 9002 approved establishment. The group turnover had touched AED180 million (US$50million approx.) in 2004.
• The group had pioneered the manufacture of paving blocks in UAE. The company was established in 1987 and expanded to manufacture Precast Concrete Products. The group also includes its Engineering division, which had established itself in UAE market by its quality and timely completion of jobs. The group is an ISO 9002 approved establishment. The group turnover had touched AED180 million (US$50million approx.) in 2004.

• Company Overview: P&O Nedlloyd Container Line, one of the world's leading shipping lines and international logistics provider, is a 50:50 joint venture between Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and Royal Nedlloyd NV. P&O Nedlloyd is the world's third largest container shipping company by capacity operating with 157 vessels, totaling 407,000 teus. In 2002, P&O Nedlloyd's turnover was US$4.7 billion.

• Company Overview: Petals have a retail chain of home products and accessories based in United Arab Emirates. The retail chain has outlets all across United Arab Emirates. The products are sourced externally from round the world. The company was also engaged in Event Management Projects.

• Company Overview: Singapore based trading house, Groveytex Trading Pte., had a branch office in Moscow Russia. The core business of company was wholesale trading in raw fabric. The fabric was sourced from various parts of the world. The company worked as a profit centre for its parent company in Singapore.

• Company Overview: VTIL was a 100% Export Oriented Unit and was engaged in manufacturing Terry Towels. The company was exporting to USA, UK, New Zealand, and Australia & also to various other European countries. The company was a registered EOU under income tax act of India.