Erdem Sozvar, Country Manager

Erdem Sozvar

Country Manager

HAVI

Location
Türkiye
Education
Master's degree, MSc. Strategic Marketing
Experience
17 years, 3 Months

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Work Experience

Total years of experience :17 years, 3 Months

Country Manager at HAVI
  • Türkiye - Istanbul
  • My current job since September 2018

● Worked as the Country Manager, the leader of the management board, reporting directly to the Senior Vice-
President, responsible for the entire operation in Turkey, managing a portfolio of over €100M annually in
30000m2 and with more than 300 employees.
● Introduced employee engagement program where activities such as "Letter to All", "Morning Coffee",
"Mentoring" "Breakfast with Us" were initiated.
● Acquired three international/national customers during a period of financial crisis in Turkey, securing a great
overachievement in new acquisition targets for 2019 at 188%.
● Despite the 0.87% decrease in revenues, 12% increase in profitability was achieved as per the forecast through
outstanding savings and innovation program.
● Introduced new tools such as “HAVI Allocation Tool”, “HAVI Order Management System”, “Virtual POS System”,
“Restaurant Audit System”, “Productivity Dashboard” and “Daily Sales Update” differentiating ourselves in the
eyes of the customer or simply lowering our costs by being more digitalized.
● Started the sustainability transition with the goal of lowering our carbon footprint by acquiring the first LNG
truck in Turkish Logistics Industry.
● Admitted to the Emerging Leaders which is a worldwide leadership program for top-level executives at HAVI.
● Became a mentor at HAVI Drive program, an international initiative where mentors and mentees from all over
the world are matched based on various criteria.

Operations Director at HAVI
  • Türkiye - Istanbul
  • November 2014 to September 2018

● Promoted as the Operations Director, a member of the management board, reporting directly to the GM,
responsible for the entire operation in Turkey, managing a portfolio of over 15000m2 and more than 150
employees.
● Changed the organizational setup to make sure the growth is supported and is sustainable.
● Successfully dropped the cost/kg by 2-3% each year for four consecutive years by strong procurement
strategy, innovative transport and warehousing solutions.
● Implemented five international/national customers without any issues.
● Helped the organization increase employee satisfaction by 7.4% according to the survey conducted.

Operations Director at HAVI
  • Romania - Bucharest
  • March 2017 to December 2017

● Assigned to the Romanian organization as the Interim Operations Director, a member of the management
board, reporting directly to the GM, responsible for the entire operations, managing a portfolio of over
20000m2 and more than 200 employees, as an additional responsibility.
● Worked on redesigning the entire supply chain process starting from procurement to the last mile delivery for
the customers such as McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Paul, Cinnabon, Starbucks, OMV - Petrom, Auchan and
SaladBox.
● Restructured the organizational setup to support high & rapid growth of the organization including back-up
plans. The entire project included identifying the ideal organizational structure, hiring/replacing some position
holders, training the existing/new employees, searching for external support within the HAVI’s global
resources and finally proving all the regional board by numbers that the structure suggested is indeed the best
one for sustainable success.
● Successfully implemented Starbucks as a client and finalized the ramp-up period without any showstoppers.

DC Manager at HAVI
  • Türkiye - Izmir
  • December 2011 to November 2014

● Worked in Operations Department as the DC Manager, responsible for the entire operation in Turkey except
for the Istanbul region, offering end-to-end supply chain solutions, managing a portfolio of over 6000m2 and
more than 50 employees.
● Delivered remarkable results such as inventory accuracy level of 98.6%, OTIF rate of 99.8%, 8.3% savings on
regional transportation costs and 14.8% on warehouse overtime costs as well as reducing the OTS/OTDs.
● Assigned as the Process Improvement Leader and Efficient & Sustainable Logistics Leader for HL-TR and
completed reflective coating application project which resulted in major savings on DC’s energy consumption.

Senior Consultant at Deloitte
  • Türkiye - Istanbul
  • September 2010 to December 2011
Senior Logistics and Supply Chain Consultant at Paris Brothers
  • United States
  • August 2006 to January 2010

Education

Master's degree, MSc. Strategic Marketing
  • at Cranfield University
  • September 2010

● Major: Strategic Marketing ● Dissertation Topic: “Exploring the link between sustainable supply chains and corporate branding.”

Master's degree, MBA, International Business and Finance
  • at Park University
  • May 2009

● Major: International Business and Finance ● Executive Vice-President of the MBA Alumni Association 2009 - 2010

Bachelor's degree, BA in Business Administration
  • at Koc University
  • June 2006

● Major: Business Administration ● President of Koc Drama Club, VP of Koc Drama Club, Member of Koc Management & Finance Club

Specialties & Skills

Efficiency Improvement
Sustainability Initiatives
Process Optimization
Supply Chain Optimization
International Business Experience
MS Office
Cold chain management
End-to-end supply chain management
Logistics and supply chain strategy design
Network design

Languages

Turkish
Expert
English
Expert

Memberships

American Field Exchange Service
  • Member
  • February 2001
AIESEC
  • Member
  • March 2004
National Honor Society
  • Member
  • April 2001