Vidyadhara Basti

Responsible for Procurement of Commodity Ingredients for food manufacturing plants across Europe.

 Responsible for procurement of Ingredients for Beverage business (Sugar and other Sweeteners, Flavours, Thickeners, Stabilizers, Acidifying Agents, Vitamins, Minerals, etc.) and Aroma Chemicals (Natural and Synthetic) for flavour business.  Procurement planning, negotiations and manage framework agreements.  Established alternate supplier base for key materials to save cost (by 5%) and improved material availability.  Managed procurement activities in SAP.

Responsible for Global sourcing of Food Raw Materials & management of 3rd party contract manufacturers.  Lead a team of purchase managers to manage a purchase spend of about € 50mn per annum (Raw Materials including Dairy Powders, Cocoa Powder, Sugar, Flavour, etc., and commodities likes Rice, Pasta, Cooking Oils, etc.).  Managed 3rd co-packing operations spread across various locations in Asia, Europe and America for Liquid Milk, Dairy Powders, Rice, Pasta, Mayonnaise, Cooking Oil, etc.

Responsible for Bakery Ingredients Category in terms of Supply Chain, Product Range Management & Contract Manufacturing  Established contract manufacturing operation for Aseptic packing of non-dairy based whip topping product.  Managed Bakery Ingredients category in terms of supply chain, product range, market pricing & new product roll out.  Streamlined Supply Chain performance to save cost and improve customer satisfaction.

Responsible for establishing and managing large 3rd Party Logistics (3PL) operations for key accounts.  Managed large 3PL (Warehousing & Secondary Logistics) operations (9 warehouses, about 300,000 sft.)  Lead a team to consistently service customer orders from markets within pre-defined KPIs and budgetary limits .  Improved warehouse operations in terms of efficiency & productivity, storage practices, process compliance and worked with a ‘customer-centric’ approach

Lead supply chain team

Responsible for vendor fill rates, inventory levels in Distribution Centres, and stock availability of FMCG products.  Optimised inventory levels across 20 distribution centres to reduce inventory holding by 30%.  Involved in replenishment planning and demand management using i2 forecasting tool.

 Program Manager to initiate and support projects related to business process improvement and technology roll out.  Tested and successfully rolled out home-grown warehouse management system (WMS) to enhance business performance.

Responsible for raw material procurement and production of semi-finished goods for retail outlets.  Streamlined supply chain operations to improve service levels to retail stores.  Initiated and successfully completed optimisation and cost reduction projects.

 Lead a project team to set-up a contract manufacturing facility for manufacturing of frozen foods.  Managed production and service to export markets.

 Development and launch of new products for Bakery Fats business.  Establish pilot and plant level capabilities so support product launches.

Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Project Management, Business Strategy

Oils & Fats, Engineering & Technology aspects

Physics, Chemistry & Mathematics