Rob King

Rob King – Logistics manager

My career at Bakkavor started in March 1992 after 6 years in the British Army as a combat medical technician. I started in finished goods warehousing collating orders for M&S and then took on the responsibility for the booking in and receipting of stock from the factory and stock control at Spalding.

As my knowledge grew I was put forward to be a forklift instructor and then went on to cover training within the department. Following this I was promoted to team leader looking after a team of 10 and then 2 years later promoted to shift manager looking after a team of 33. Over a period of five years I gained knowledge of warehouse management systems and configuration, people management and measurement and control.

In April 2004 I moved to the Pizzeria and, supported by our Information Systems team, introduced a new system to the Goods-in warehouse, ensuring the factory could efficiently service numerous supermarkets twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. The real challenge in this was to manage the change in culture and be able to demonstrate the benefits the system could deliver.

In May 2008 I took up a new role across the businesses two UK pizza sites looking at the Goods-in and dispatch functions to ensure that our systems and processes satisfy all aspects of the supply chain including technical, logistics, finance, planning and dispatch.

My goal is to provide a highly efficient service to both the factory and the retailer.

The challenge that lies ahead in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) is an ever decreasing order lead time within a stockless warehouse with increasing raw material lead times and distances to travel.