We are Colgate - a caring, innovative growth company reimagining a healthier future for all people, their pets, and our planet. We are a leading global consumer products company with portfolios in Oral Care, Personal Care, Home Care and Pet Nutrition.
At Colgate, we have a purpose! Every day around the world, we transform the lives of hundreds of millions of people and pet families through groundbreaking innovation, outstanding products and nutrition, and committed people.
Our strong culture of collaboration, diversity, sustainability and inclusion is grounded in our core values of Caring, Global Teamwork and Continuous Improvement. Employees are rewarded by rich career development and career experiences. We pride ourselves on our focus on delivering high ethical standards, the richness that our diverse team brings, outstanding standards and our dedication to developing our employees. With many local benefits such as Summer Hours, Wellbeing programs, access to discounted Product, medical & life insurance, improved superannuation to name a few!
Scope of responsibility:
The Customer Service & Logistics Manager has regional responsibility for providing collaborative end to end Customer Service and Logistics solutions that utilise joint capabilities and expertise in support of The Companys customer development and Customer Service & Logistics strategies. The incumbent facilitates The Company Business Planning process and is the critical link to Demand Planning to ensure alignment, and, generates growth and profitability opportunities for both customers and The Company by collaborating with the customer, local/hub management to reduce cost to serve, reduce working capital, improve customer service levels, and implement process innovation.
The Customer Service & Logistics Manager is responsible for delivering excellent service to the customers, and being responsible for driving efficiencies in the order to cash process, regional warehousing & logistics, working capital and business simplification.
The CS&L Manager contributes to the ongoing development of best in class methodologies across the Supply Chain/CSL and commercial organizations and ensures that collaborative initiatives are agreed, developed and implemented with excellence.
The Customer Service and Logistics manager is the single point of contact for the cluster General Managers in terms of Customer Services & Logistics decision making and responsibility.
Main Responsibilities:
Demand planning, Inventory Management
- Lead monthly demand planning process for the region.
- Ensure demand plans are submitted per hub timeline and accurately entered into SAP APO Demand Planning Module. Timely completion of DP error root cause analysis and drive continuous improvement of Demand Planning results.
- Develop and improve the collaborative demand planning process in order to increase Demand Planning Accuracy, improve service, and reduce obsolescence.
- Support Consumer/Customer Marketing planning of new product launches and promotions. Review and challenge volumes and timing as appropriate.
- Collaborate with customers to support joint planning (demand planning, secondary sales forecasting, promotion planning, etc) using available customer data.
- Communicate any Supply chain issues or constraints which will affect customer plans.
- Seek opportunities for simplification by managing SKUs and driving rationalization and harmonization initiatives. Ensure timely maintenance of SKU portfolio.
- Adopt an end-to-end view of supply chain inventory levels to enrich demand planning performance, remove waste and reduce stock outs.
- Deliver Key CS&L metrics for the Southern Africa region: DPA/Bias, Inventory.
- Monitor performance metrics to understand service and efficiency trends within assigned customers and find opportunities for improvement. Shares performance information with local management team, divisional CS&L and customers to develop collaborative approaches to correct inefficient behaviors or fix system disconnects/failures.
- Identify root causes of customer supply chain inefficiencies and Out of Stocks (OOS). Facilitate solutions with local & divisional resources as well as customers.
- Effectively manage data flow, communication and processes associated with new and transitioning SKUs, material status (e.g. SLOB, Discontinued) and ensures synchronization with customers data.
- Support the enforcement of Commercial Terms & Conditions with the customer(s) and investigate opportunities to improve logistics efficiencies.
- Leads opportunities to implement valuable services such as Collaborative Planning, Efficient Replenishment, Data Synchronization, EDI, etc.
- Work with the regional commercial team to deliver expected Return on Investment and projected cost to serve for promotions and special packs.
- Works closely with the local Finance Manager to optimize a Cost to Serve model and customer Economic Order Quantities (EOQ) which are linked to consumption.
- Address special customer needs and expectations around product packaging, calling upon the appropriate Supply Chain, CS&L, & Commercial resources to develop/offer the most cost-effective solutions.
- Collaborate with the local team, customers, and division to deliver Funding the Growth savings across all areas of Customer Service & Logistics.
- Manage local warehousing & distribution costs to budget.
- A Bachelors Degree or equivalent preferably in Business, Logistics Or Engineering
- Minimum 5 years of experience either in Customer Service/Logistics /Supply Chain/Demand/Logistics/Operations and People Management Development
- Minimum 2 years of people management experience
- Experience in Leading Sub-Saharan markets
- Proven experience in establishing relationships at senior levels with customers and working with cross-functional selling teams
With the Colgate brand in more homes than any other, we are presented with great opportunities and new challenges as we work to integrate sustainability into all aspects of our business and create positive social impact. We are determined to position ourselves for further growth as we act on our 2025 Sustainability & Social Impact Strategy.
Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Achieving our purpose starts with our people ensuring our workforce represents the people and communities we serve and creating an environment where our people feel they belong; where we can be our authentic selves, feel treated with respect and have the support of leadership to impact the business in a meaningful way.
Equal Opportunity Employer
Colgate is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, marital status, veteran status (United States positions), or any other characteristic protected by law.
Reasonable accommodation during the application process is available for persons with disabilities. Please contact Application_Accommodation@colpal.com with the subject "Accommodation Request" should you require accommodation.
