Production Manager in Stevenage

7am to 7pm Four On Four Off Shift Pattern

Location: Stevenage

Reports to: APU Manager

Main Purpose of Position

At Europe Snacks Ltd, we strive to be a great place to work by embedding our core values of Entrepreneurship, Excellence, and Care in all that we do. As a Night Shift Production Manager, your role is pivotal in driving production efficiencies to meet demand while fostering a culture of continuous improvement. You will focus on delivering exceptional operational performance by adhering to high technical standards, quality, safety, and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). You will lead and motivate production teams, ensuring compliance with health, safety, and operational standards. Your leadership will drive labour efficiency, process optimization, and a safe, compliant work environment. By collaborating with various departments, you will work to improve output, minimize waste, and meet customer standards with a focus on maintaining an excellent food safety culture.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Safety Leadership: Lead the site’s health and safety agenda, fostering a culture of zero tolerance for safety breaches. Investigate and close out all accidents, near misses, and RIDDOR reports to eliminate safety risks. Ensure staff adherence to Safe Systems of Work (SSOW) and maintain up-to-date training records to meet safety standards. Manage employee working hours to ensure no one exceeds 60 hours weekly.
• Quality and Food Safety: Ensure compliance with product specifications, food safety regulations, and quality standards. Drive the site’s Food Safety Culture by organizing regular training, evaluations, and standards enforcement. Maintain accurate records for HACCP, process controls, and traceability, ensuring 100% compliance. Collaborate with the Quality Assurance (QA) team to ensure no deviations from product specifications or GMP. Escalate potential risks to the Factory Manager to maintain high food safety and product quality standards.
• Production and Delivery: Oversee day-to-day production to ensure targets and schedules are met, while proactively addressing potential issues. Hold daily briefings with team leaders to review performance and discuss any operational issues. Ensure that production plans are achieved and production processes are optimized through continuous improvement initiatives. Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) like OEE%, labour hours, and delivery targets. Drive operational efficiency through effective use of Total Lean Culture (TLC) tools and techniques.
• Cost Control: Manage labour, raw materials, and production costs, producing daily variance reports. Work closely with colleagues to reduce downtime and waste in production while improving overall equipment efficiency (OEE%). Contribute to cost-reduction plans, identifying opportunities for improvement and driving action plans to achieve cost-saving goals. Ensure proper planning and utilization of labour, minimizing overtime while achieving production efficiency targets.
• People Management: Lead, develop, and coach a team of Team Leaders and Setters to foster a collaborative and high-performance culture. Ensure that the team is adequately trained, motivated, and performing to meet safety, quality, and productivity goals. Drive employee engagement by upholding the company’s Respect & Dignity Charter and ensuring fair and transparent management of absence, lateness, and holiday. Maintain effective communication channels and hold regular team briefings to keep staff aligned with business goals. Conduct performance management reviews and development plans for team leaders, ensuring a focus on continuous improvement and career progression.

Critical Success Factors and KPIs

• Safety: Zero accidents and near misses, high compliance with SSOW.
• Quality: 100% compliance with HACCP, GMP, and product specifications; low customer complaints and non-conformances.
• Efficiency: OEE%, labour hours, adherence to production plans, and waste reduction targets achieved.
• Cost: Labour utilization within budget, reduced raw material waste, improved cost per ton (Cost/T).
• People: High team engagement and morale, minimal absenteeism, strong adherence to training and development plans.

Personal Qualities

You will be totally committed to delivering excellent customer experience – you will embody and champion our values every day in the way you deal with customers and colleagues. Work with gravitas, courage, maturity and be calm under pressure, building credibility and respect with internal and external stakeholders. With strong interpersonal skills that enables you to give timely feedback in a frank, positive way. Able to work collaboratively with all parts of the business, knowing when to support, when to push back and when to hold the line. Demonstrate a strong commitment to the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion. You will have the ability to inspire colleagues in a positive way through support and encouragement while also tackling any performance issues early and decisively to avoid problems from developing further. You’ll be a credible self-starter with drive and motivation and will seek out your internal and external customers, to understand fully your customers’ needs, identifying and working to remove pain points, and always doing what you say you will. A champion and role model for anticipating, shaping and enabling change you will be flexible, adaptable and resilient. You will be passionate about Production Management and be an effective and articulate communicator. You will demonstrate an entrepreneurial mindset, confident to challenge status quo and bring new ideas.

Qualifications and skills

• Proven experience in a production management role within the food manufacturing sector.
• Strong knowledge of food safety standards, including HACCP, GMP, and relevant legislative requirements.
• Excellent leadership and team management skills, with a focus on coaching and developing others.
• Solid understanding of production planning, cost management, and efficiency improvement techniques.
• Strong problem-solving abilities, able to identify issues and implement solutions proactively.
• Competency in data analysis and using metrics to drive performance improvements.
• Ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams and engage stakeholders at all levels.
• Strong commitment to health, safety, and environmental regulations.

What We Offer

• Company pension scheme
• Referral programme
• Access to a digital rewards platform with discounts and salary sacrifice options
• Ongoing career progression, development, and strong long-term job security
• The opportunity to make a real impact within a growing and ambitious food manufacturing business

Why Join Europe Snacks?

At Europe Snacks, our values of Entrepreneurship, Excellence and Care are at the heart of everything we do. We are committed to creating a culture where our people can thrive, develop, and contribute to the future success of our business. Europe Snacks is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We enthusiastically welcome applications from candidates of diverse backgrounds and experiences. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please contact us.