Profile & Career Overview
I am a highly motivated individual who is driven by profitable results and stretched sales targets. My career has primarily been focused on Customer Marketing positions but have been involved across the Supply Chain. I have also been involved in many industries, focusing mainly on the FMCG market, but have experience in the Packaging Sector (Tetra Pak), Hygiene (Servworx) as well as Workwear markets (Dickies and Jonsson).
My skills involve selling, marketing, advertising, logistics and financial. I have been responsible for numerous sales teams as well as marketing managers. I have been responsible for step-changes in the companies I have worked for. At Tiger Brands, I was responsible for taking thirty-three new projects (launches, re-launches or product extensions) to market in a year. At Illovo, I was responsible of reducing expenses (logistics) as well as Cost-of Sales of a combined R7 million (five hundred thousand British pounds) in three years.
I spent three and a bit years at Lever Brothers (Unilever) at Kingston-upon-Thames (UK) where I was involved in a logistics supply chain project, new IT sales project and as a National Key Account Manager.
I have been in Marketing and Sales throughout my career having majored in both disciplines at University. I have been studying the entire Supply Chain throughout my career and having had experience from sourcing raw materials to production to consumer, I can add value to any organization anywhere in the Supply Chain.
I had the perfect introduction to both Marketing and Sales Divisions when starting at Unilever. I started in the sales area and understood what the customer was looking for. I then took this information into the marketing office to develop packaging – inner and outer – to suit the retail market.
I have worked for market leader companies and taken their products to market. The strategies are so different to those of market followers. At Unilever I started at Lever Ponds with brands such as Skip, Omo, Sunlight, Dove and Lux. I launched Dove into the South African market and was involved with the advertising campaign on Dove woman. I was also involved with launching Surf Micro Washing Powder onto the South African Market. Market Leader strategies are about innovation and performance. I looked after the Western Cape Sales Region for Lever Brothers and achieved the set sales targets.
I left for the shores of the UK from Cape Town and spent three and half years in Kingston-Upon-Thames. I was involved in a logistics supply chain project, new IT sales project and as a National Key Account Manager. I worked closely with European countries to ensure fair pricing and to reduce “round tripping” of stock. The key tool we used with key accounts was that of Demand Forecasting in order to get the right production and movement of stock from the factory into the consumer’s homes. This program benefitted all parties in the Supply Chain.
I came back from the UK with Unilever and continued my career with them at Lever Ponds. I was responsible for the largest customer in the personal care market in Clicks/Diskom.
My experience at Tetra Pak was one of world class. The technological advancement of the packaging was something to behold and all customers absolutely bought on benefits rather than on price. I managed to get Parmalat to purchase new machines and packaging formats after personally experiencing them in different markets around the world. I was an extension of the Marketing Departments of the manufacturers and hence was operating one level back in the Supply chain to my Unilever experience. I created a TV campaign for Long Life Milk.
Speed to market was the key at Beacon Sweets and Chocolates and we handled thirty-three launches or re-launches into the confectionary market in one year. We had a combination of market leader and followers in the portfolio and used the appropriate strategies to get them to market. I was the Customer Marketing Manager on all three Categories and shared in successful launch campaigns.
I spent over 10 years with Illovo Sugar and made a major step-change in how we marketed and sold a commodity – sugar. I created an advertising campaign and put a little boy’s face on the consumer packaging and appealed to the emotional aspect of consumer’s purchasing sugar. It was a very successful campaign and TBWA were nominated in the top advertising campaigns in SA for that year. I also lead a project team in analyzing the way sugar was taken to the market (From Cane to Consumer) in which we stripped out seven million rands out of the supply chain in three years.
From Illovo I moved into the workwear market and joined Jonssons as the National Sales Manager. I was responsible for the reps as well as agents around South Africa. The sales increased by 22% in a very static market as we introduced new garments and revolutionized the workwear market.
I then joined one of Jonsson’s customers – Servworx – who rented workwear to companies. I was the MD of the Hygiene Rental Market which is an extremely competitive market. We rented the garments as well as the Hygiene machines and liquid.
I went to Johannesburg to launch Dickies Workwear into South Africa. It was difficult as we faced a weakening rand against the US Dollar. We developed our own range in South Africa which substantially reduced the costs of the workwear.
I am a highly motivated individual who is driven by profitable results and stretched sales targets. My career has primarily been focused on Customer Marketing positions but have been involved across the Supply Chain. I have also been involved in many industries, focusing mainly on the FMCG market, but have experience in the Packaging Sector (Tetra Pak), Hygiene (Servworx) as well as Workwear markets (Dickies and Jonsson).
My skills involve selling, marketing, advertising, logistics and financial. I have been the manager for numerous sales teams as well as marketing managers. My management style is primarily one of participation and we are so much stronger as a team rather as individuals. I have the ability to formulate the winning strategy for the respective companies and execute it with the team.
Career Details
Employer Bata Industrial
Position Held Divisional Brand Manager
Duties / Responsibilities – Management of entire industrial footwear
Strategic direction of Bata Industrial Footwear
Profit and Loss of entire division
New business
Manage sales team and agents
Sourcing materials from China
Employer Skye Distribution
Position Held Dickies Workwear Manager
Duties / Responsibilities Management of Dickies Brand with Southern Africa
I am responsible to plan and execute the strategic plans with the intent to drive profitable revenue, brand equity and grow the market share
I drive brand equity through collaborative efforts with the product and marketing teams.
I manage the go-to-market strategy to ensure the brands right selling methods and partnerships
I manage all brand communications to drive consistency in delivering the Brand Messages to the Market
I was responsible for the national sales team
I was responsible for the profitability of Dickies Workwear
Employer Workwear Depot
Position Held Sales Manager – Durban
Duties / Responsibilities Drive Sales Growth
I ensured the store achieved its external sales figures
I increased the turnover from R1.5 m per month to R3m in 4 months
Employer Servworx Integrated Services Solutions
Position Held Managing Director – Hygiene Sector
Duties / Responsibilities New Business with great prospect
I was employed to enter the rental market on Hygiene systems
I was responsible for the full supply chain on sourcing the garments to installing them at the customers
Customer relationships are so vital in this industry and I ensured we provided the best customer service for the entire process of garment rental.
Employer Jonsson Workwear
Position Held Customer Marketing Manager
Duties / Responsibilities Sales Target Driven with focus on Customer Service
I was responsible for all Workwear sales in South Africa
I was responsible for the performance and relationships with all national customers
I was responsible for stock availability from factory to warehouse to the customers in correct quantities
I was responsible for continuous cost savings and improvement in the supply chain
I controlled all costs and expenses
Employer Illovo Sugar LTD, South Africa Operations
Position Held Marketing Manager
Duties / Responsibilities Sell and Market 2 million tons of sugar
I prepared and implemented the annual and strategic marketing and sales plans for the trade market within the SACU market.
I prepared the annual marketing expense budget
I developed the promotional and advertising campaigns that were aligned to corporate marketing objectives
I ensured that the National Sales Manager, Key Accounts Manager as well as the Regional Sales Managers implemented and negotiated the devised plan. In addition, I was responsible for the management of the National sales force, now outsourced to Smollan Sales and Marketing (1200 employees)
I liaised with senior retail executives on the performance, profitability and strategic direction of their companies as well as the industry as a whole
Employer Beacon Sweets & Chocolates (Pty) Ltd
Position Held Customer Marketing Manager
Duties / Responsibilities Innovation Personified
I managed the three Category Managers for Beacon Sugar, Chocolate and Occasions
I ensured Category objectives and strategies were achieved
I was responsible in leading a multi-functional supply and demand team within Beacon
I ensured the forecasting process was implemented and managed the link between planning, factory and Channel Managers
I was responsible for the overall profitability of the Categories as well as the budget
I managed the portfolio of brands within the defined trade category strategy to deliver both short and long term category objectives
With innovation, I developed and delivered, while ensuring customer needs are considered, strong trade propositions and the effective communication of launch plans to the Customer Division Team
Employer Tetra Pak South Africa (Pty) Ltd
Position Held Marketing Manager
Duties / Responsibilities Business to Business
I assisted the MD and Marketing Manager in the development of annual business plan
I developed a long term category strategy as well as an annual category marketing plan
I created synergies/alignment between the TP category and customer’s strategies within the category
Employer Lever Ponds – South Africa
Position Held National Account Manager
Duties / Responsibilities FMCG Manager for Retail Market
I was responsible for the achievement of annual volume, value and profitability targets by category, for accounts
I formulated and implemented the customer plans for accounts ensuring category targets were achieved
I developed and implemented channel and category strategies within the business
Employer Lever Brothers (Pty) Ltd – United Kingdom
Positions Held National Account Manager
Duties / Responsibilities Proud Unilever Manager
I was responsible for achieving the annual volume, value and profitability targets for accounts
I prepared and implemented proposals presented to buyers on new ways of conducting business
I worked closely with European countries to ensure fair pricing and to reduce “round tripping” of stock
I ensured optimum and cost saving deliveries to warehouses, negotiating “Efficient Delivery Incentives”
I was responsible for the Supply Chain Management together with UK, Ireland and European factories and warehouses
I operated and managed the Manugistics system for Lever Brothers UK
I set-up and implemented Vendor-Managed-Inventory (VMI) system with Somerfield to reduce amount of stock in the supply chain
Employer Lever Brothers (Pty) Ltd – South Africa
Positions Held Regional Sales Manager – Western Cape
Duties / Responsibilities
Management of Western Cape Region
Management of seven sales representatives
Management of Key Accounts
Positions Held Assistant Brand Manager (Fabrics and Toilet Soaps)
Duties / Responsibilities
I was reaponsible for the launch of Surf Micro
I was responsible for the launch of Dove
Positions Held Assistant Account Manager – OK Bazaars Group
Duties / Responsibilities
Space Management
Category Management
Account profitability
Budget Control
Positions Held Management Graduate Trainee – Sales Representative
Duties / Responsibilities
Service the Spar Distribution Centre
Manage pull through of stock at store level
Management projects
Sales rep in Eastern Cape Region
