Vimal Kumar

Strategic Sourcing Consultants for Raw Material & Ingredients for Food & Beverage Processing Industry

Managing 250+ stock keeping units (SKU) spread across categories of Resins, Polymers, Paper Pulps & Agricultural Products, Fruit Pulps & Concentrates, Flavours, Ingredients, Flexible Packaging, Corrugated cartons, chemicals etc across two plants.

Championed AED 100-120 Mio annual spend; regulated team of one non-managerial staff. Negotiated best prices with vendors and verified smooth procurement of Raw & Packaging Materials. Supported continuous factory operations and regulated existing supplier relationships; procured sustainable supplies and managed vendor development. Budgeted purchasing activities and implemented new systems including e-procurement strategies.

Agthia Group PJSC is a leading Abu Dhabi based food and beverage semi government company.

Established in the UAE in 2004, and listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) since 2005, the Agthia Group consists of an excellent portfolio of integrated businesses and brands providing high quality, trusted, and essential food and beverage products for customers and consumers across the GCC, Turkey, and the wider Middle East.

The Company’s assets are located in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt and Turkey.More than 4, 500 employees are engaged in manufacturing, distribution and marketing various food and beverage products : Water and Beverages (Al Ain Water, Al Ain Zero Water, Al Bayan Water, Alpin Natural Spring Water, Ice Crystal Water, Delta Water, Bambini Kids Water, Al Ain Fresh Juice, Capri-Sun Fruit Juice); Food (Grand Mills Flour, Yoplait Yogurt, Al Ain Tomato Paste, Al Ain Frozen Vegetables, Monty's Bakehouse Frozen Bakery products, The Grand Baker Ambient Bakery products, Pure Natural Convenience Food items, Date Crown Dates); Animal Feed (Agrivita, Al Wasmi, Anderson Hay)

Principal Responsibilities

•To recognize, understand and contribute towards the medium to long-term objectives of the Procurement Department and to support the Procurement Director - Indirect in the execution of the Procurement Business Plan
•Lead, define and deliver a complete end to end Procurement service for a defined set of Categories using a Category Management process with clear \[short, medium and long-term\] fiscal and service targets for delivery
•Responsible for building strategic relationship with key vendors considering all the stake holders interest
•Tender management / e- tendering and administration for high value and high priority requirement; manage the supply contracts for indirect materials. cost reduction initiatives, review and approval
•Manage Negotiation Process with service providers/vendors covering costs, commercial and contractual terms etc
•Formulates the supply strategy for relevant product categories
•Manage multiple procurement projects simultaneously, prioritize according to company's strategic, financial and operational requirements
•Responsible for preparing and publishing tender documents
•Develop a database of high end suppliers and spearhead negotiation discussions
•Manage supplier selection and evaluation
•Conduct Techno commercial evaluations of supplier bids and align with stakeholders
•Recommendation with justification on awarding of contracts
•Overall management of contracts across the Group
•Manage, train and mentor the buyers group
•Analyze and implement KPIs for the team and ensure continuous personal development programs are in place.
•Manage the Purchase Order and Purchase requisitions approvals through the ERP system

A premium brand in the Middle East with interests in Water, Tissue Paper, Juices, Gourmet & part of the Al Ghurair Group.

I manage the Companywide Purchases of Raw Material, Spares & other products.

Principal Responsibilities

Heading the Procurement, MRP, e-procurement solutions of the company

Main KPIs/KRAs

• Price variance over budget
• Savings generated through e-auctions
• Inventories Valuation
• Re-Order Levels
• Stock availabity
• Expiry of Raw Material

Major Activities :-

Implementation of Ariba’s Sourcing & Spend Analysis Platform across many business verticals
Categorizing of Spends (Indirect, Direct)
Identifying savings leakage and securing savings
Analyze & develop RFP, RFQ’s and RFI based on requirement
Manage and ensure that savings targets are achieved and implemented through Ariba.
Complete responsibility of the procurement of raw materials, packing materials, spares and other items including Capital items Purchases.
Tracking the commodity markets covering Plastics, Concentrates / Fruit Crops, Sugar, Currencies etc. to insulate the company from rampant fluctuations.
Price negotiation for key input raw materials to ensure lowest possible costs.
Compile and analyze data on demand-supply of commodities, price trends and market forecasts for commodities.
Identifying and analyzing risks associated with raw material procurement (Price, Volume, etc.) and designing strategies to mitigate the same.
Generating MIS on monthly procurement performance and analyzing variances.
Responsible for developing a broader and reliable vendor base for raw material sourcing.
Complete ownership and responsibility of the strategies followed for achieving the best possible scenarios for the company.
Evolving a philosophy of buying from the source / manufacturer directly thereby eliminating middlemen.
Negotiating financial and other contractual terms with the vendors for capital items.
To lead a team of members and guiding them to achieve the desired departmental objectives

ACHIEVEMENTS;

Redefined the methodology to procure major raw materials
Positive budget variances in all the years of execution.
Average inventory days of 30 days
Successful implementation of e-sourcing solutions and realization of identified savings generated through e-auctions

• Purchase of Raw Material / Packing Material to maintain adequate coverage of stocks. \n• Development of alternate suppliers. \n• Price Negotiations by way of Forward Contracts for Major Commodities used in the Biscuit Industry. \n• Tracking of Commodity Trends in order to take positions. \n• Planning & Co ordination between various departments to achieve monthly target & weekly commitments for dispatch. \n• Setting Priorities for production and ensuring availability of Raw Material / Packing Material based on the Production Plan. \n• Sorting logistic issues with customers / suppliers \n• Freight Negotiation for both Import & Export Shipments Inwards / Outwards. \n• Coordinating for New Product Development / product modifications with Suppliers/Sales \n• Import & Export clearing and documentations. \n• Handling Import & Export L/C. \n \n \nKEY RESULT AREAS \n \n• Reduction in purchasing cost \n• Inventory Cost Control \n• Reduction in Freight Cost

• To supervise the procurement of parts for the company’s fleet & other related items to meet the operational requirement at best possible price & quality. \n• Monitor the requisition status for spares and expedite the procurement process with the assistance of the buyers. \n• Maintain vendor records up to date in collaboration with the Maintenance Manager. \n• Price & Credit negotiation.

• Co ordination between Sales, Marketing & Production to achieve monthly target & weekly commitments for dispatch \n• Priority setting for production and ensuring availability of RM / PM \n• Preparation of Dispatch Plan, co ordination between production / documentation & dispatch to achieve Sales targets \n• Sorting logistic issues with customers / suppliers \n• Purchase of RM / PM / Spares to ensure proper stock for production \n• Development of alternate suppliers for cost reduction in co ordination with Operation Manager \n• Freight cost reduction for Finished Products / RM / PM \n• Co ordination with Finance / Accounts for timely payment to suppliers \n• Providing cash outflow forecast to Finance Department \n \nKEY RESULT AREAS \n \n• Achievement of Sales Target as per Business Plan \n• Improvement in Customer Service \n• Reduction in purchasing cost \n• Inventory Cost Control \n• Reduction in Freight Cost

• Keeping track of the all Export sales orders released by the Sales Dept. in the ERP system. Monitoring & following the orders up through BaaN till final shipment from the third party logistics warehouse. \n• Co-ordination with Sales, Production & Purchase to ensure the Sales order cycle runs efficiently. \n• Monitoring progress of production against due shipment date and advising the respective Regional Managers/ Customer Service dept. on the status of their customers’ orders. \n• Providing third party logistics provider with a daily shipment/loading schedule 24hrs in advance and assisting them in tracing stocks wherever there are problems. \n• Arranging container / truck bookings and ensuring that they arrive as scheduled. \n• Other stock related functions viz. Monitor aging of Stocks, stock levels & stock rotation. \n• Processing of demands received from the distributors / customers and ensuring that they are factored into the production planning cycle. \n• Procurement planning, ordering and follow up with suppliers of Major Raw Material (Concentrates, pulps and Packaging Material, Tetra Pak) based on sales forecast. \n• Maintaining sales data for analyzing sales trends. \n \nKEY RESULT AREAS \n \n• Reduction of lead-time in servicing export orders / demands which in turn boosted re-orders. \n• Reduced cost by keeping inventory levels under control. \n• Reduced production cost by identifying slow moving / non-moving items. \n• Reduced inventory-carrying cost with effective stock rotation. \n• Reduced transportation/shipping cost through negotiations

• Processing of Orders received from Distributors / customers. \n• Follow up on receivables. \n• Export Documentation. \n• Negotiation of L/c’s \n• Co-ordination & follow up with production & warehouse and plan shipments. \n• Container & truck bookings including negotiation of rates with the shipping lines & transport companies. \n• Pricing - working out the contribution statement for export inquiries. \n• Maintain sales reports for analysis \n• Assist the Export Managers in preparation of Annual Sales Budgets. \n• Conduct ISO 9000 internal quality audits within the organisation. \n \nAWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS \n \n• Was selected as the most innovative employee and was rewarded by the management in the above-mentioned organisation. \n• Was conferred with an Award of Excellence in recognition for the exceptional performance and team spirit displayed. \n• Successfully completed the training program in ISO 9000 internal quality auditing.

• Processing of Orders received from Distributors / customers. \n• Follow up on receivables. \n• Export Documentation. \n• Negotiation of L/c’s \n• Co-ordination & follow up with production & warehouse and plan shipments. \n• Container & truck bookings including negotiation of rates with the shipping lines & transport companies. \n• Pricing - working out the contribution statement for export inquiries. \n• Maintain sales reports for analysis \n• Assist the Export Managers in preparation of Annual Sales Budgets.

• Order processing \n• Follow up with the factory for timely execution of the orders. \n• Distribution of finished goods inventory and monitoring stock levels at the regional sales offices \n• Preparation of tender documents for various inquiries from Institutions & government ministries. \n• Maintain sales data for analysis.

• Marketing and implementing the Company’s ‘Computer Literacy Program’ at various client location. \n• Co-ordinating the project inputs for the successful implementation of the program. \n• Visiting clients regularly and providing feedback to the management on the progress of the program.