• Greenfields Opportunity
• Significant investment already provided
• Pet Food Manufacturing Site
• Central North Island Location

Opportunity

You will be joining the company at an exciting, entrepreneurial stage.  This is a rare opportunity for a person to join a Pet Food manufacturing company in its formative stages in a site leadership role. You will significantly influence the manufacturing environment's setup, establishment, and ongoing running.  As such, you need to have the confidence to back your experience and knowledge to lead the quality & compliance aspects of the manufacturing environment.

Significant investment has been committed to establishing a brand new, state of the art, highly automated production facility.  It is in construction and is expected to be fully commissioned and operating in March 2022. 

There are three key product lines - kibble, canning and treats.  This will be the largest kibble producing site in the Australasian market.

The Company

Our client is a newly created New Zealand based company, 100% owned by a publicly listed Chinese Pet Products and Food manufacturer.  Continuing its focus to secure quality New Zealand Pet Food for the Chinese and overseas market, the parent company has also acquired majority ownership of another complimentary Pet Treats Company in the North Island.  This is a New Zealand-based and run company offering premium New Zealand branded Pet food for overseas markets.

The Role

Reporting to the General Manager - Commercial, this role is critical in providing strong leadership and direction to the quality and compliance of the operation. You will be responsible for ensuring all operational aspects meet regulatory requirements, third-party certification requirements, customer requirements and company requirements at all levels on a day to day basis while maintaining a safe and happy working environment for staff.

This is a challenging and exciting role, as you will be involved in the final stages of commissioning the site and equipment. You will be responsible for embedding and improving technical direction to the plant, developing and improving systems, products, and processes to confirm the premium products are produced compliantly to specification and a high standard. You will be working with and developing the team across all aspects of the business, helping to improve the way things are done.  No day is the same.

You

To be successful, you will be an excellent communicator who can communicate technical information in simple terms to both external customers and internal personnel from a wide array of backgrounds, education, and skillsets. With an enthusiastic can-do attitude and willingness to go the extra mile, you will be prepared to take ownership of problems and follow through on their resolution. 

Given that the site is still in the commissioning stage, you need to be technically astute and have an aptitude for developing and improving practical systems around state-of-the-art machinery. 

Your experience will cover several the following attributes:

• Deep working knowledge of the food manufacturing and processing industry within a quality, technical or compliance role, with Risk Management Programmes / HACCP experience
• Track record in developing, implementing and improving systems
• The ability to apply technical knowledge and analytical techniques, with an eye for detail
• Competent in Microsoft Office Suite (especially Teams, Outlook, PowerPoint, and advanced skills in Excel and Word), where Power BI would be advantageous and proficient using a computer for various tasks.

It is desirable if your experience will cover several the following attributes:

• Tertiary qualification in Food Technology, Engineering (Chemical/Process), Science or similar.
• Pet Sector Experience
• Meat Industry Experience
• Export Food Safety and Compliance.

For a confidential discussion or to acquire the position description, please contact Richard Foster on 021 85 45 45 [link removed].  Alternatively, to submit an application press the APPLY button and follow the steps, include your CV as an attached Microsoft Word document. 

NOTE: FOSTERRA is exclusively managing this role.