Supply Chain Manager

Job Title Supply Chain Manager

Department Operations

Reports To Finance Director

Job Purpose

The Supply Chain Manager is responsible for leading and continuously improving all supply chain activities to ensure the efficient, cost-effective and reliable supply of raw materials whilst delivering industry-leading customer service to major European multinational brand owners.

The role has overall responsibility for procurement, production planning, inventory management, supplier performance and supply chain optimisation.

An element of the role is dedicated to production planning, ensuring optimum utilisation of HD flexographic printing presses, finishing equipment and associated manufacturing resources to achieve customer service, efficiency and profitability targets.

The position plays a key role in balancing customer demand with manufacturing capacity whilst maintaining inventory accuracy, minimising waste and supporting continuous improvement initiatives throughout the business.

Key Responsibilities

Procurement

• Securing reliable, cost-effective supply of core materials including PE/PP films, laminates, papers and carton board.
• Mitigate raw material price volatility through robust negotiation, category tenders and contracting strategies/supplier relationship management
• Reduce supply risk via dual sourcing, supplier diversification and contingency planning
• Support the transition to recyclable, mono-material and lower-impact packaging solutions in line with customer and regulatory demands
• Improve working capital through optimised inventory, lead-time reduction and demand planning alignment
• Maintain rigorous quality and specification control to protect press performance and print consistency
• Ensure supplier compliance with sustainability and regulatory requirements.

Production Planning

• Maintain detailed production schedules across relevant flexographic printing and finishing operations.
• Balance customer demand, machine capacity, labour availability and material constraints to maximise manufacturing efficiency.
• Plan production to achieve On Time In Full (OTIF) delivery targets.
• Schedule production considering press capability, tooling, changeovers and ink systems.
• Liaise daily with Production, Customer Service, Sales and Technical departments to prioritise customer requirements.
• Ensure production plans optimise machine utilisation whilst minimising waste, downtime and unnecessary changeovers.
• Maintain accurate planning data within the business system.

Continuous Improvement

• Improve supplier performance through KPI management.
• Identify automation opportunities within planning and procurement systems.

Compliance

Ensure compliance with all relevant legislation and customer requirements including:

• FSC® Chain of Custody
• PEFC (where applicable)
• PPWR
• EUDR
• ISO Quality Systems
• BRC Packaging (where applicable)
• Health & Safety legislation
• Environmental regulations

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Degree or equivalent qualification in Supply Chain, Procurement, Manufacturing or Business.
• Professional qualification (CIPS, APICS/CPIM, CILT or equivalent) desirable.

Experience

Essential

• Minimum 5 years' experience in Supply Chain Management within manufacturing.
• Excellent commercial acumen, analytical skills and data-driven decision making
• Confident stakeholder manager with the ability to work cross-functionally with Production, Technical, QA and Finance teams.
• Exposure to Production planning within a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
• Procurement and supplier negotiation experience.
• Inventory management expertise.

Personal Attributes

• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced manufacturing environment with competing priorities
• Detail-oriented with strong quality and specification focus
• Resilient, adaptable and capable of managing change
• Collaborative, relationship-driven and confident influencing at all levels

If you recognise yourself in the description above, we want to meet you to discuss how you can help Leading Edge Labels achieve its exciting objectives.

Pay: £40,000.00-£50,000.00 per year

Benefits

• Company events
• Company pension
• Free parking
• On-site parking

Work Location: In person