This Group is Africa's largest producer in their industry. They are currently looking for a Category Specialist - Logistics, who will be responsible for ensuring for the effective management of Inbound Cane Logistics & Agriculture Services related procurement and optimisation activities in line with the business requirements and the Group Logistics Category Group Agriculture strategy.

Minimum Qualifications and Experience Required:

• Relevant 3 year degree or equivalent (Procurement, B.Com, Engineering, B.Sc or similar).
• Minimum of 3 years’ experience in Procurement / Category / Supply Chain.
• Knowledgeable in Inbound Cane Logistics and Agricultural operations (highly advantageous).
• Proven ability to effectively manage and negotiate contracts (logistics preferred).
• Highly developed interpersonal and relationship building skills.
• Strong negotiation, commercial acumen and understanding of the business to enable the support of business strategies and goals with pragmatic and innovative solutions.
• Excellent analytical capabilities to extract insights from gathered data.
• Highly confident with the use of databases, Excel and Project Management Tools; some knowledge of advanced analytical tools and Continuous Improvement process.
• Ability to effectively work plan and manage time efficiently in accomplishing role responsibilities.
• Flexibility to adapt to developing situations.
• Self-starter & finisher; ability to take initiative and drive change.
• Strong and effective communication and influencing styles, able to achieve win-win solutions and capable of flexing style to different situations.
• Understanding of basic Health and Safety systems.
• Innovative, intuitive with ability to anticipate and interpret complex issues impacting on functional area.

Key Performance Areas:

• Support procurement activities for Inbound Cane Logistics and Agriculture Services (new and repeat).
• Generate cost savings through the development and execution of category strategies.
• Support internal customer projects for sourcing and purchasing needs.
• Manage the procurement category process from compiling the tender/enquiry, issuing tender/enquiry, evaluating / adjudicating tenders received, bid clarification, assistance towards negotiating the contract through to finalizing the contract.
• Assist in the management of ongoing supplier relationship and develop criteria and processes to monitor supplier and internal operational compliance and performance.
• Negotiate contracts and approve prices, delivery and payment terms, quality requirements and establish supplier performance metrics that meet standards and supply objectives.
• Identify external data sources and tools to enable tracking of supplier market.
• Work closely with various mill Agriculture Teams to identify and deliver optimised cost effective inbound cane logistics and agriculture services solutions in collaboration with the suppliers.
• Understand and monitor market trends and new innovation solutions to evaluate feasibility in company operations.
• Develop costing models to calculate what logistics and agriculture services should cost, in order to ensure that the costs from suppliers are optimised as well as assist in decision making about possible in-sourcing of such services.
• Be involved in the development of Continuous Improvement programs for the various sites and also contribute with new ideas, based on data analytics and market knowledge.
• Together with the Group Agriculture team, help define, source and implement systems that enables and optimises planning, execution and tracking of various inbound logistics and agriculture activities.
• Track key performance improvement indicators.
• Drive utilisation of e-Procurement tools.
• Ensure category is procedurally compliant, meeting, audit and SHERQ requirements.
• Implement supplier performance management and development (including BEE development) mechanisms.