Robert Kennedy

• I manage the spend for 11 categories, covering over 300 products supplied by 30 suppliers, all of whom are contract manufacturers who produce products for some of Valeo's 70 owned brands
• Some of the main categories I am responsible for include: Pasta, Canned Tomatoes, Rice, Canned fruit, Pickles, Oats
• Many of my categories involve sourcing and securing supply of seasonal goods worldwide at the best possible cost without compromising on quality
• The majority of my spend is sourced from Italy and frequent travel there is required to manage suppliers producing Valeo's branded products
• I ensure contracts are in place for all relevant suppliers and use market intelligence from suppliers and elsewhere to ensure a forward view on costs
• I report to the business on risks or opportunities to the business arising from cost fluctuations
• Currently I am trying to mitigate inflation impact by negotiating, supplier switches, consolidation of supply and design to value projects
• I work with cross-functional teams to ensure the annual launch of NPD to achieve an annual target of €1M in profit.

• Responsible for managing 10 Categories covering 48 suppliers with a total spend of ~40% of total Boyne Valley Total
• Categories responsible for include: Soups, Spreads, Condiments, Curry, Sports Nutrition, Non-Food/Household, Pickles
• Spices (manufacturing), Chemical ingredients (manufacturing)
• Mostly involved in management of 3rd party manufacturers for Boyne Valley brands, but also involved with ingredient and packaging suppliers for in-house manufactured products
• Benchmarking existing suppliers on cost, quality and service level is a key task in my role
• Through such a benchmarking exercise I achieved cost savings of 45% on a key packaging item whilst also improving product quality, security of supply, transport efficiency and moving to a more technically competent supplier
• Launching NPD with existing and new suppliers was another significant portion of my role
• In 2021 I oversaw the integration of 6 new suppliers into the business as part of a project that launched 22 new sustainable products from 10 suppliers in a coordinated brand re-launch in the Non-Food area
• I acted as an escalation point for the Supply Chain Team for issues with suppliers such as poor service level, lead time delays, issues with packaging etc
• Contributed to the initiation of a Supplier Relationship Management programme

• Responsible for Sourcing new suppliers for NPD and benchmarking purposes in the areas of food products, ingredients, packaging and non-Food products
• This new role was primarily created to source and on-board new suppliers for a large NPD pipeline at the time
• Within my first 12 months I was responsible for Sourcing on 42 unique NPD products across 7 different brands
• The role also encompassed benchmarking of existing suppliers to improve their competitiveness or move supply
• Within my first 12 months one of my main achievements was sourcing and on-boarding 2 new suppliers for 2 of our largest and most important brands/ranges
• This resulted in a combined saving of almost €0.5M or 13% across the 2 ranges composing of a total of 47 SKUs
• This process involved 2 trips to the far East to inspect supplier premises
• Annual Attendance at all major European FMCG Trade shows: PLMA, Sial, Anuga, Biofach for the purpose of Sourcing
• NPD
• Managing supplier set-up/changeover, with the Technical, Marketing and Commercial Teams, in-line with Retailer range changes, stock run-out and brand launch/re-launches

• During this period I held 2 very distinct roles simultaneously as outlined below

Tastebud

• Act as Commercial liason between Tastebud suppliers and Tesco ROI and UK buyers
• Within my first month of this role I was fully responsible for coordinating an Irish supplier Trade show in Tesco UK Head Office in London
• As part of this I lobbied UK buyers to meet Irish suppliers and attended the Buyer meetings along with the suppliers and advocated for them and followed up with each supplier in the following month after the event
• Select upcoming Suppliers of trending products to participate in the programme
• As part of a team I judged and reviewed products of various suppliers in conjunction with a prize that Tesco sponsored during the Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards

• Responsible for achieving budgeted sales and margin for my buying area of circa €1M per week
• Margin management through promotions, managing margin mix and negotiation of costs with suppliers
• Management of supplier Joint Business Plans and delivery of Commercial income targets
• Delivery of sales/market share growth through pricing, promotions, NPD, building customer driven ranges/planograms
• Sourcing and setting up of new suppliers
• As a side project during this role I oversaw the launch of an “ethnic food” section to 20 stores nationwide which involved either trans-docking or directly sourcing 30 products from the UK ranges for Afro-Carribean, Asian and USA
• Foods.

• Responsible for planning and implementing promotions
• Manage buying plans for Seasonal buys and assist in year-round range to achieve the best offering for the customer
• Analyse sales and margin figures on a daily basis to ensure my buying area is profitable
• Analyse our retail prices weekly to ensure we are competitive in the market

• Responsible for coordination and analysis of ongoing counters projects across the whole country to identify underperforming stores for sales or waste metrics, root cause the issues and rectify through visiting stores or engaging store coaches/Managers
• Within my short time in this role I made changes to processes which lead to the saving of 25 tonnes of meat going to waste each year
• I also made decisions on space and range and discontinued poor performing lines from certain stores to reduce waste
• I also trialled a launch of a new range of food-to-go offering across 8 city centre stores including test cooking the offerings and issuing Communications to stores on preparation instructions and space and display instructions., Serving customers/Stock taking & ordering/Assessing quality of fresh products

• Van Sales And establishing new customers for newly launched sandwich brand

• Serving Customers/Decorating fresh Meat & Fish counters/Cleaning and Deep cleaning/Light Butchery Work