Produce Manager - Santos Organics Health Foods

Santos Organics has been operating since 1978 and is an innovative Environmental Not-for-Profit social enterprise that uses clean food and natural products to fund environmental and social health initiatives through ongoing grants and donations.

• Role Summary

This role has responsibility for the PM duties in our Mullumbimby store, as well as the additional responsibility of overseeing key aspects of the produce departments across all of our locations in partnership with the Store Managers and GM to ensure our standards are consistent in all stores. This role requires effective time management skills and hours allocated specifically to complete administration tasks and responsibilities in order to achieve our profit requirements while managing the implementation of our Grow the Grower localisation strategy.

Your positive and vibrant approach, environmental awareness, and passion for high quality organic and local food / products inspires both our team and our customers. In doing so, you inspire conscious change and are a catalyst for a better tomorrow.

• Main Tasks and Responsibilities

As the Produce Manager, you will oversee and manage all aspects of the produce stock for all locations. You will create, support and embed department procedures and team knowledge relating to produce department requirements, ensure produce team is complying with WH&S / FH&S standards and implementing produce merchandising changes to drive sales. You will provide product knowledge to ensure the produce team can assist customers thoughtfully.

Maintain open and clear channels of communication with all members of the SO team and particularly the produce team at all store locations to inspire and motivate growth in our produce departments.

• The Area Produce Manager role includes but is not limited to
• In Store - Mullumbimby
• Ensuring that all produce is sold to customers in the highest quality and freshness
• Training and educating all staff in the store on produce knowledge, seasonality and localisation
• Training the staff on all produce-related Standard Operating Procedures
• Merchandising of produce on display - fresh, vibrant, abundant
• Ensuring safety and handling procedures are followed at all times when dealing with fruit and veg.
• Managing the stock levels / quantities, stock rotation and wastage of produce for the week
• Managing the cleaning requirements of the department from daily, weekly, monthly and yearly - fridge, coolroom, herb fridge, cupboards, cages, display fridges and floor. Ensuring accountability of produce team to complete the tasks
• Advising on best practice of handling, storage and processing of fruit and veg across the team and to customers
• Processing the invoices through LS for F+V
• Ensuring the merchandising and marketing is all relevant to the produce in store
• Ensuring we maintain healthy, friendly relationships with all delivery drivers
• Company-wide
• Centralized buying for all the local suppliers - updating the availability each week, pricing, advice on buying, storage, and deliveries.
• Farmer relationships - maintaining a harmonious relationship with all local suppliers through transparency and loyalty. Continuing the line of communication between the retailer and farmer with constructive feedback on quality control, seasonality and pricing.
• Managing quality control of all produce being delivered to Santos from wholesale and local farmers. Providing feedback to local suppliers and requesting credit notes to the wholesale suppliers
• Providing education on local suppliers to the team, creating content and marketing material for instore usage.
• Creating and implementing Produce SOP to be used across the three stores
• Advising on pricing to the finance team each week
• In store training with the produce team to ensure consistency of quality, stock, cleanliness and education
• Coordination of bulk produce required for the kitchen, events and outside buyers.
• Keeping up to date with the seasonality of produce, pricing with competitors, current trends, and local suppliers
• Create contracts with local suppliers for seasonal supply - Tobias, Pepe, CG, Green Cauldron
• Being involved in the localisation and food security piece of Santos Organics. Staying up to date with the current projects and events in the Northern Rivers.
• Regulations
• Ensure that WH&S and FH&S standards and legislation are met, maintained and followed to achieve exceptional ratings and assessments
• Ensure correct reporting procedures and documentation is followed consistently (hazard and incident reporting)
• Ensure that all team members understand the duty of care in relation to identifying workplace hazards and reducing risks for the team and customers
• Reporting
• Provide GM produce monthly report and feedback (Mullum + Combined F&V based on GTG / Localisation Strategy)
• Attend scheduled meetings and complete actions requested based on date requested
• Key Performan