Gary Grindlay

September 2009 to Current SUPPLY CHAIN & MERCHANDISING DIRECTOR
ZOHOORALREEF (Retail & Manufacturing)
I am Supply Chain Director based in Saudi Arabia developing the Supply Chain & Merchandising management for a large FMCG Manufacturer and Retailer. We also operate factories in France.
My responsibilities include the demand planning from factory to shelf, Merchandising Management, Purchasing and New Product Development, IT and Logistics.


• Responsible for the 9% increase in margin by better negotiations and reduction in supply costs.
• Increased on shelf availability from 56% to 99% which increased Sales by 30%
• Design & Relocate to new warehouse facilities and introduce best practice warehouse methods
• Implemented Retail Pro and Swift Reporting System
• Renegotiate inbound supply from EC and Far east
• Developed demand planning and on shelf availability measurement
• Developed and installed WMS complete with voice picking technology
• Managed web development to allow home shopping online option across GCC countries.
• Manage New Product Development team to enhance regular new offerings to customer.
• Put in place Product forecasting and Replenishment model, working with manufacturing plant based in France reducing stock in the business by $8, 000, 000

September 2007 to September 2009 SUPPLY CHAIN DIRECTOR
DAMS INTERNATIONAL LTD
I was responsible for the complete control of the company's Supply Chain dealing with forecasting and planning which encompasses the external purchasing and manufacturing of product through the plant. My responsibilities include Distribution, Warehouse, import, export delivering orders all over the UK and Europe.

• Introduced centralization which reduced stock holding by £8 million.
• Completed end to end supply chain review identifying processes and reducing SKU range to increase factory throughput reducing backorders and increasing Cash flow
• Reduce Fleet by 40% through introduction of Vehicle tracking and Paragon scheduling.
• Reduce manufacturing costs by over 30% by best in class production Planning.
• Improved service levels from order turnaround of 14 days to 3 days best in industry.
• Developed relationship with third party contracts with the major Retailers worth over £25 million.
• Developed a profitable 3 PL business.
• Introduce cost to serve models allowing total measurement of business process.
• Reduced transport and warehousing costs by £2 million.
• Developed Unique selling point in the market place of 2 person home delivery and installation

September 2005 to September 2007 LOGISTICS DIRECTOR
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD (2 Year Contract)
I was responsible for the complete control of the company's Supply Chain handling 120 million units per annum. My responsibilities include Distribution, Warehouse, Import and Export.

• Improved service levels from order turnaround of 6.7 days to 1.9 days best in industry which enabled the business to secure all 10 third party contracts which were otherwise lost.
• Changed Warehouse methods of working increasing productivity by 40%.
• Introduced 5 from 7 Shift working moving away from a 3 day week.
• Managed difficult union negotiations with militant work force.
• Enhanced warehouse management system by introducing labour management, con-current replenishment and voice activated picking.
• Management of $40 m ERP project implementation across 5 countries including the USA.
• Implemented fully automated sortation and mini load system.
• Reduced stock holding by 7 million.
• Set up category management team to reduce stock and wastage by over ordering. Saving £15million
• Reduced transport and warehousing costs by £2.5 million.

February 2001 - September 2005 LOGISTICS DIRECTOR
TJ MORRIS LTD (Food Retailer)
I was responsible for the complete control of the company's Supply Chain currently handling 38 million cases per annum with a LFL annual growth of 34 %. My responsibilities include Distribution, Warehouse, Importation, HR and merchandising plus the continued enhancement of the IT infrastructure.

• Successfully managed the company's best Christmas ever with availability increased to 98.5% from previous years of 75 %.
• Design and Planned to sign off stage 35 million Automated Distribution centre.
• Changed Warehouse methods of working increasing productivity by 38%.
• Managed difficult union negotiations with militant work force.
• Enhanced warehouse management system by introducing Labour controls, con-current replenishment and voice activated picking.
• Introduce Paragon Scheduling with store alert system through vehicle tracking system
• Advising Retail Director in the introduction of store plan-o-grams, shelf facing replenishment increasing availability by 23% and reducing stock and store staff hours.

April 1995 - February 2001. SUPERDRUG STORES PLC. (Kingfisher plc)
HEAD OF SUPPLY CHAIN. (Retail)
I was responsible for the complete control of Supply Chain & Distribution within Superdrug Stores plc. This included over 1450 personnel within three RDC's plus third party operations within Northern Ireland and at Bristol.
My financial responsibilities encompassed a capital budget of £8.5 million plus an operating budget of £36 million. The weekly volume throughput is over 2.4 million cases per week. I was also responsible for the company's Supply chain strategy.

• Turnaround of an operation, which had continually fallen short on service criteria to stores, failed to achieve productivity standards and therefore did not meet costs.
• Through CPFR (Collaborative Planning Forecasting &Replenishment) reduced £9.3 millions of stock in the business.
• Project Plan and implemented National Automated Distribution centre with mini automated cross docking sites.
• Implemented E3, developed VMI &EDI with major suppliers.
• Implemented various strategies, which saved the business £ 3.25 million per annum.
• Implemented Dallas warehouse system across 3 Rdcs with no disruption to the business.
• Developed an automated solution, which would enable the business to deliver the store demand chain strategy.
• Introduced Demand planning with an Auto replenishment system managing store min / max stock levels and increased stock availability on shelf.
• Developed chill chain solution to supply temperature controlled drugs to pharmacies
• Introduced flexible driver contracts with over 400 drivers without any disruption to service in a difficult union environment

January 1991 - April 1995. SAFEWAY FOOD STORES.
GENERAL MANAGER.
Responsible to the Operations Director for the direct control of all operations at Bellshill Regional Distribution Centre, this was the largest composite Distribution centre in Europe. The 550, 000 sq ft center distributed 1.6 million cases of food per week and employs a workforce of 1254. My responsibilities included the formulation of a £30 million annual budget (updated quarterly), ensuring the highest possible standard of service to the customer in the most cost effective method, thus maximizing profit.

• Turnaround of Bellshill RDC in both productivity and costs
• Eradicated major union stronghold and negotiated new agreement turning around workforce attitude.
• Successful implementation of an automatic sortation system enabling the smooth and productive introduction of extra volume.
• My last 18 months was spent as Regional Manager, where I was actively involved in key business projects with major manufacturers, during my time in the role I developed a total understanding of the Supply Chain, and involved me in formalizing various business cases, presenting them to main board for approval.

March 1988 - January 1991 TRANSPORT DEVELOPMENT GROUP
General Manager UK.

Responsible to the Operation Director for the total control of the company's transport and warehousing operations throughout the U.K. which included 500, 000 sq ft of warehousing, 7 operating centers, 96 trunk movements per night and 270 vehicles. My budget was £21 million for the National Operation.


• Controlled growth through the implementation and monitoring of a trunk network
• Achieving a high quality responsive service and thus attracting major blue chip customers, BP Chemicals, Birds Eye Kraft, Uni Lever and Proctor and Gamble.
• Headed up and successfully achieved BS 5750.
• Involved in organizing the merging of other group companies into Intercity Transport operations, which doubled the turnover and fleet of the company overnight.

Early Career Details

1984 -1988. TNT LOGISTICS.

1979-1984 TDG LOGISTICS.