Commercial Manager – Pricing and Profitability at RCL Foods

Job Description    
Are you analytical and passionate about enhancing the business bottom line?

RCL FOODS is passionate about talent and we are currently seeking a Commercial Manager: Pricing & Profitability to join our Pretoria West Baking Business Unit. The role will provide commercial support across multiple operating units, and reports into the Commercial Executive. 
The Commercial Manager, will develop ways to increase profitability from new and existing products, categories, and channels across the baking operating units. We seek a highly analytical and results-oriented individual, who has proven track record of formulating complex costing models/tools, packaging and presenting commercial insights, as well as managing multiple costing teams and engagements with cross-functional and executive stakeholders.  

The individual will be the custodian of profitability systems, models and methodology across the baking unit.

Minimum Requirements    

• BCom and CIMA/ CA (SA) or CGMA qualification
• Minimum 5 years experience in a senior commercial/operational finance role for a manufacturing business, that includes commercial costing (BOM/Stock related), operational reporting, and team management
• Experience working for a manufacturing plant within the costing space
• Be an innovative, confident, and creative thinker with the ability to make quick decisions
• Proven ability to influence and build collaborative relationships with a wide range of stakeholders
• Track record of managing cross-functional teams
• Extremely proficient in Excel and Microsoft applications including PowerPoint, PowerPivot, PowerBi
• SAP/Syspro experience preferable
• Individual must be a self-starter and able to work independently with limited oversight
• Excellent Team player recognizing when the task/project at hand requires them to lead and when to contribute
• The Successful incumbent must be able to grow, lead and influence a team based across multiple sites
• Eager & determined individual to get to the bottom of and resolve issues
• A project manager mind-set, being able to handle numerous profitability/costing projects at one time and being flexible with the type work you are involved in.
• Patience to work through complex technical issues as well as understand an operating unit’s needs, to keep on asking until you get to a clear understanding that can be simply communicated to others
• Ability to identify and investigate issues and provide commercial insights for continuous improvements
• Acting as a trusted business advisor to the broader commercial team and Managing Executives, including providing a clear point of view, demonstrating forward thinking, risk analysis and challenging existing ways of doing things
• Identify areas of improvement by uncovering the root cause and developing processes to ensure continuous improvement and overall effectiveness
• Basic awareness of different cultures and working practices across operating units

Duties & Responsibilities    
Key Accountabilities

• Collaborate with operational, front-end teams, functional heads of department and executives to understand business requirements and commercial costing needs.
• Responsible for profitability reporting, pricing, and costing analysis for all the operating units within the Business unit
• Managing the price increases processes and compiling insightful customer presentations
• Managing cost and management accounting teams as well as BI and profitability systems/models
• NPD and Costing Process
• Managing the continuous costing process for new product development or changes to existing products/manufacturing processes
• Evaluating impact on pricing and profitability of any NPD and/or change to offerings
• Take part in BOM audits, process audits, price recovery assessments as well as costing equipment impact assessments to reduce yield/usage variances
• Ensure that profitability models/system(s) inputs (i.e. perform calculations, understand routings) are maintained by teams on a daily/weekly/monthly basis
• Pricing and Profitability analysis
• Running and compiling periodic price increase models and presentations
• Ensure pricing strategy is executed as per plan and conduct post implementation reviews
• Provide inputs into the improvements and maintenance of contribution margins through volume mix, pricing, promotional activity decisions and cost saving initiatives
• Provide calculations, detailed analysis and associated recommendations emanating from any initiatives that arise through cost saving initiatives, changes in business operations, BOM/product offering changes which potentially might offer more profitable solutions
• Daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly profitability and deep dive reporting across all operating units
• Provide profitability insights and recommendations.
• New Project/initiatives Appraisal and Feasibility Assessment
• Drive the appraisal and commercial feasibility assessment of new projects and initiatives identified by business, technical and marketing teams.
• Ensure projects are costed accurately and ROI principles are achieved
• Conduct post launch reviews to ensure committed return hurdles are achieved
• Information and Data Management and Business Analytics
• The individual will be the custodian of profitability systems, BI models and profitability methodology across the baking unit.
• Responsible for accuracy, completeness and relevance of data and analytics from the profitability systems and/or models.
• Ensure team members accurately and regularly captures data onto the information system to enable access to reliable data and reporting for trend analysis and decision making.
• Weekly/daily running of raw material usage and ingredient variance tools by team in order to reduce stock variances.
• Share relevant and insightful data with management teams to enable reliable business decision making.
• Design and development of Dashboard, profitability reporting tools and adhoc reporting

Closing Date: 10th, March 2022