Ice Cream Customer Collaboration Specialist IH Value Channel

Job Title:  Ice Cream Customer Collaboration Specialist IH Value Channel

Location: Kingston

ABOUT ICE CREAM: Life Tastes Better with Ice Cream

As ice cream makers we are serious about happiness. With warm hearts, we create the coolest products, and we supply them to our consumers. As the largest ice cream company in the world, we have over 100 years of experience in delivering smiles, and we plan to continue this for many more years to come. If you are in the current Unilever Ice Cream business or considering working for the newly separated Ice Cream business, you will work for the Global leading Ice Cream player in a growing category where we are part of the 1 trillion snacking and refreshment industry, growing consistently at high pace. We are investing to unlock the full growth potential of Ice Cream as a standalone entity, once we separate from Unilever, which is planned to happen by November 2025. Committed to innovation, quality, and sustainability we have 35 brands, including 3 one billion Euro brands (Magnum, Wall’s, Ben & Jerry’s), a strong presence in over 60 countries, generating annual revenue of over $8 billion, of which 2.8b comes from Europe region.  As part of the supply chain team, you will turn the ordinary into the extraordinary by supplying unique and high-quality product to our customers and consumers, coordinating the entire E2E supply chain network in an efficient and sustainable way.

The UKI is one of the biggest ice-cream markets in Europe and the wider world, delivering nearly £500m turnover across Retail, Out-of-Home and D-COMM channels. This role is an exciting opportunity to join the UKI SCLT leadership team and lead the In-Home Customer Services team which is the largest share of business at 70% and now includes DCOMM and ICNOW channels.  

JOB PURPOSE

The Customer Collaboration Specialist IH Value Channel is the supply chain face of Unilever Ice Cream to our customers. The ultimate goal of the role is to make Unilever the preferred supplier that our customers want to work with. Role holders are primarily responsible for working with our customers on forecasting & events to improve Unilever’s customer relationships through delivery of brilliant service levels, OSA & Forecast Accuracy. This role is geared towards focussing on the future, including planning of the mid-term promotion and events horizon (30 to 90 days) and range change planning (up to 12 months out), with some intervention in the immediate term where needed. Role holders are expected to use their knowledge of customer and Unilever supply chains to influence decision making on initiatives that add value to Unilever and the customers.  

RESPONSIBILITIES

Key Metrics

• Fulfilment Rate – Dispatch Rate %, CCF / Customer Measure of Service, OSA/OLA 
• Customer Service - AGS 
• Forecast Bias – 4w FB, 1w FB 
• Forecast Accuracy – 4w FA, 1w FA 
• Innovation OTIF 
• Cost-to-serve savings delivered 
• Customer Trade Terms compliance to LET grid 

Operations & Systems

Forecasting 

• Provide customer-specific insights & recommendations based on analysis & collaborative discussions (such as 30-60-90 forums) to positively influence the forecast accuracy & bias of promotional volumes within Unilever and with customers. 
• Owns the volume phasing of promotions, using data and insights to improve forecast accuracy and bias. 
• Owns inputs to short-term amendments to the forecast and is expected to align with relevant stakeholders on ability to fulfil. 
• Support in review of customer-specific baseline forecast, providing insights & recommendations to CAM, Demand Planning & customers. 

Order to Deliver 

• Provide information & input to customer execution teams to inform short-term decision-making process. 
• Management & planning of exceptional events (such as shippers, gifting, WIGIGs, range reviews, etc) to facilitate effective execution by O2D teams. 

Systems that a role holder would be expected to use or interpret includes but is not limited to – SAP, RTVA, PowerBI, MS Office, TPM, TPA, customer portals. 

Projects, Innovation & Capabilities

• Leads small scale customer projects that help Unilever stand out vs other suppliers (knows as “podium plays” – i.e. they put Unilever on the podium. E.g helping a customer to test and launch a new system).  
• Work with the Customer Innovation Leaders on larger scale customer projects to land with the customer in a joined up way. 
• Collaborate with customer to ensure correct set up of NPD, including master data, phasing, and first-order management. 
• Supports relevant internal and external stakeholders on technology, process or business changes. 
• Provides guidance and support to CD and other stakeholders on the feasibility and execution of initiatives. 

Continuous Improvement & Problem Solving

• Review compliance with logistics trade terms and identify opportunities to improve with customers. This includes analysis of order patterns, load fill, volumes, full pallets, order amendments, etc. 
• Analysis of service / OSA losses to determine key trends & chronic problems, working with stakeholders to improve availability. 
• Identify savings opportunities and work with internal and external stakeholders on planning and execution. 
• Analysis of AGS results to create & execute of plans for future improvements with customers alongside other stakeholders. 
• Collaborates with third parties and internal stakeholders to influence the continuous improvement of reports, processes and ways of working pertinent to this role & its interfaces. 

External Communications & Relations

• Act as the supply chain face of Unilever to our customers. 
• Understanding the needs of retail customers, be the voice of the customer internally and develop relationships with key customer contacts. 
• Lead communication to customer on service performance & incidents, proactive sharing of potential supply risks and associated mitigations. 
• Expected to visit customer offices and sites on a frequent basis (up to once per week) to develop face-to-face relationships and improved understanding of their issues and opportunities. 
• Build relationships to positively influence customer behaviour in line with Unilever’s operational & leadership expectations. 

Line Management & Coaching

• Training & coaching for new CCS starters may be an expectation of this role. 
• This role may be expected to coach / educate CAMs on forecasting & supply chain fundamentals. 

ALL ABOUT YOU

Minimum Requirements 

• A customer-focused mindset, seeking to exceed their expectations where possible. 
• Willing and able to travel to meet customers. 
• Strong internal and external stakeholder management. 
• Excellent quantitative analytical skills. 
• Proficiency in English & Maths. 
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with ability to adapt style to influence stakeholders. 
• Strong problem-solving skills and an ability to think logically. 
• The ability to stay calm & focused in fast-paced, high-pressure situations. 
• Ability to manage time effectively, well organised, planning workload and being able to focus on future promotions and events rather than get distracted with the issues of today. 
• A proactive mindset, seeking to avoid problems before they arise. 
• Comfortable holding others to account and in having challenging conversations. 

Ideal Requirements 

• Advanced skillset in Microsoft Excel. 
• Experience working with retail customers. 
• Experience with SAP or other ERP software. 
• Experience working in logistics, planning or commercial roles. 
• An understanding of basic financial / commercial measures and how supply chain roles can influence them. 
• A solid grasp of supply chain fundamentals. 

KEY INTERACTIONS

• Customer – Commercial & Supply contacts 
• CD - Customer Account Managers & Customer Business Managers 
• Customer Experience - Customer Execution Specialists, OFCLs 
• Planning - Demand and Supply Planning Teams 
• Customer Planners & Customer Experience Analysts 
• Subject Matter Experts 
• Logistics 
• Pricing Teams 

NOTES

About Unilever

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Food, Home and Personal Care products with sales in over 190 countries and reaching 2 billion consumers a day. Unilever has more than 400 brands found in homes around the world, including Dove, Tresemme, Lynx, Lifebuoy, Shea Moisture, Persil, Domestos, Ben & Jerry’s, Magnum, Marmite, The Vegetarian Butcher, Graze and Pot Noodle.

Faced with the challenge of climate change and the need for human development, we want to move towards a world where everyone can live well and within the natural limits of the planet. That’s why our purpose is ‘to make sustainable living commonplace’ 

Location

In June 2020 we announced our plan to consolidate a number of Unilever’s offices across the South East of England into a new Unilever campus in Kingston-upon-Thames in or around early 2025. However, on the 08 August 2024 we announced to our existing staff our proposal to retain our central Head Office in London, 100 Victoria Embankment (“100VE”) until our lease expires in 2027. As a result of this new proposal, we will be consulting with our existing staff, and new joiners who join during this period of consultation at 100VE, on the proposal made in August 2024. During consultation we will clarify the future location of each team and function. This means your role will either be based in 100VE until 2027 or in Kingston-Upon-Thames from early 2025. As we are yet to commence consultation on the proposal you agree, until such a time when consultation has concluded, your normal place of work as set out in the enclosed Statement of Terms & Conditions will be 100VE. You agree that on the conclusion of the consultation your place of work will be 100VE or 100VE until early 2025 and then Kingston-upon-Thames ("the locations") and you will be notified of which of the locations will be your place of work after that consultation ends.

What We Offer

Not only do we offer a competitive salary and pension scheme, we also offer an annual bonus, subsidised gym membership, a discounted staff shop and shares. You’ll have the opportunity to work directly with our renowned and exciting brands in a flexible and hybrid working environment.

Whilst the role is advertised on a full-time basis, we would be happy to discuss possible flexible working options and what this may look like for you. We are a key advocate of wellbeing and offer a variety of support for our people including hubs, programmes and development opportunities. We strive to achieve a family-friendly and inclusive workplace and to, above all, create possibilities for all.

Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities and growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. We are also more than happy to provide reasonable adjustments during our application and interview process to enable you to be present your best self. To find out more, including about our Employee Resource Groups, please click here Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at Unilever | Unilever.

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