Job Openings at Vector Logistics

Job Purpose

• To provide direct commercial support and insight to the finance and customer teams internally, as well principals and customers externally.
• To facilitate the development of commercial engagement with the rest of the business.
• To deliver enhanced customer and business profitability and assist in focused strategic decision-making.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Contribution

• Participate in the formulation and implementation of the national customer/commercial strategy, based on a 2-to-5-year view of requirements.
• Ensure that assigned and agreed strategic targets are operationalized and achieved. 

Customer Pricing and Contract Management

• Calculate and provide accurate pricing information for the annual price negotiations.
• Together with the Customer team, review customer and principal pricing contracts and manage the annual pricing negotiations and formula-based adjustments and agree pricing with customers and principals.
• Ensure related profitability objectives are achieved.
• Conduct regular performance reviews and highlight opportunities for the business and its customers/principals relating to, among others, rate reductions and improved efficiencies.
• Provide continuous pricing support regarding profitability to ensure that costs are managed against targeted margins.
• Drive commercial conversations with and answer related queries from customers and principals.
• Ensure that the Finance Support Team is informed of the correct pricing for customers and principals.
• Manage and monitor the allocation of charges to customers and principals to ensure that they conform to the agreed rates.
• Draft new contracts and service level agreements in consultation with the Vector legal team and manage the process in consultation with the Customer and Financial teams to the point of formal sign off by the parties concerned.
• Monitor the contract terms of all existing customer and principal contracts includingnotice periods and schedule renewal discussions accordingly.

Budgeting and Forecasting

• Compile and review results of the budgeting and sales forecasting processes, including volume and distribution revenue analysis.
• Provide insight and interpret the impact of key revenue drivers on profitability.
• Compile the monthly reports detailing customer and principal sales and performance.
• Conduct regular commercial strategy reviews and report to the Exco on:
• current and historical revenue performance
• market positioning and relevance
• competitor analysis and pricing
• growth strategy and opportunities
• margin improvement opportunities.
• Complete annual “tail cutting” reviews focusing on unprofitable customers and principals.

Profitability Analysis

• Provide meaningful profitability information and recommend ways to optimise customer, principal and business profitability.
• Support the customer team in the use of system tools regarding pricing and profitability.
• Provide support and regular feedback on performance to the customer, sales and account managers.

Billing

• Ensure accurate and complete monthly billings to principals and customers.
• Support the customer team in reviewing and signing off revenue.
• Recommend strategies for simplification and automation of revenue billings and customer communication.

Reporting

• Drive enhanced customer and business profitability and performance information designed to unlock margin opportunities and influence improved contributions.
• Identify opportunities for value added reporting to improve the quality and content of reporting and message management.
• Provide sustained support to customers and principals, particularly those who raise specific queries.

Commercial Insight and Technical Expertise

• Provide calculations, detailed analysis and associated recommendations emanating from any and all queries that arise as a result of changes in business operations, the economic climate or potentially might offer more profitable solutions.
• Provide expertise in management team meetings to internal clients and colleagues and recommend solutions based on insights and findings.
• Provide practical commercial expertise and insights to external customers and principals as part of regular engagement and ad hoc requests.

Staff Management

• Lead and develop staff within the context of the Labour Relations Act, Employment Equity Act, Basic Conditions of Employment Act and the Skills Development Act.
• Monitor staff performance and provide regular feedback.
• Manage staff activities, ensuring service levels are met and protocols are adhered to.
• Coach and support staff where necessary to achieve objectives.
• Manage staff leave and general time management issues in line with organisational deliverables and standards.
• Manage and deliver on succession plans to enable the development of a future generation of leaders and specialists and ensure optimal turnover and retention levels are maintained.
• Champion staff training and development through the utilisation of available training
• opportunities or contributing to the development of new training solutions in collaboration with national training specialists.
• Conduct regular performance appraisals with subordinates.
• Establish sound staff and labour organising and communication structures and systems.
• Lead the team towards meeting the strategy and targets through regular communication and utilisation of the full organisational talent management tool set.
• Develop and manage high performance multidisciplinary teams in order to solve problems within the commercial arena.
• Conduct regular meetings and ensure that records are kept and shared across the team and that action plans agreed to within team meetings are delivered upon.

KPI’s

• Timeliness and accuracy of pricing information.
• Achievement of profitability targets.
• Accuracy and relevance of profitability analysis.
• Value added reporting components.
• Quality of advice, insight and recommendations to customer team, customers and principals.
• Outcome of pricing negotiations.
• Timeliness and accuracy of reporting.

Key Relationships

Internal

• Customer team.
• Operations management.
• Sales team.
• Wider finance team.
• Procurement.
• IT Team.

External

• Legal representatives.
• Auditors.
• Existing and potential customers.
• Principals/Suppliers.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience Required for the Job

Qualifications and Experience

• Must have Matric (Grade 12).
• BCom degree and/or similar experience.
• CA or CIMA is preferred.
• 3-5 years’ experience, including commercial and front-end experience and people management.
• SAP experience would be advantageous as would exposure to a supply chain/FMCG/ logistics environment. 

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Job Purpose

• The Management Accountant will be responsible to provide management accounting support and insight for the relevant customer/principal/depot.

Key Responsibilities

Pricing:

• Partner with customer managers to develop principal/customer specific pricing strategies.
• Maintain profitability through development of price adjustment negotiation packs.
• Monitor in/efficiencies that need to be taken into pricing.
• Draft commercial terms of agreements.

Budgeting and Forecasting:

• Preparation of the annual budget and quarterly and monthly forecast pack for presentation to exec.
• Coordinating the budget inputs from various depts across the business, performing reasonableness checks, marrying operational stats to financial KPI’s.

Project Management:

• Responsible for identifying logistics areas for process improvement and cost savings to ensure expectations are met.
• Lead, manage and facilitate reporting improvement projects across the business.
• Monitor industry standards, trends including technological trends, or practices to identify developments in logistics planning/execution and reporting.
• Identify training, coaching and mentoring opportunities where possible for the team to achieve performance targets.

Reporting:

• Oversee, analyze and interrogate results in TM1 by customer/principal and depot.
• Managing the focused delivery of an accurate monthly scorecard.
• Understanding and managing of the data accuracy and reconciliation in TM1.
• Streamlining existing processes and removing manual/paper-based tasks in order to reduce the risk of human error and improve speed of information delivery.
• Overseeing the balancing of all reports, sign off on recons and documented investigation of variances.
• Publish weekly and monthly “snapshot” reports as required by the business in an accurate and timely manner by:
• Developing a broad knowledge base of the organizational processes and policies.
• Staying fully informed of operational objectives, performance and critical trends.
• Focusing on the compilation of a monthly commercial reporting pack that highlights.
• Focus points for the month, exposes core issues, generates action plans and assigns responsibilities.
• Engaging with Management through presentation of the monthly commercial report and follow-up sessions where appropriate in order to provide the business with the tools to make informed strategic decisions, implement change and maximize profitability.
• Assist in the review and actioning of TM1 variance reports prepared using data extracted from TM1.
• Analyse and explain KPI fluctuations and variances.
• Provide monthly commentary for submission to the Commercial Manager.
• Track contracted commercial arrangements and ensure adequate billings/provisions are accounted for accurately and completely within the relevant month end financial data.

Cost analysis (ABC Model):

• Understand the ABC Model and cost drivers.
• Provide commercial insight into variances of cost drivers month on month.
• Identify changes in the business that need to flow through the model.
• Maintain data process flows and present changes at commercial team meetings.
• Analyse costs against budgets and forecasts.
• Provide input driving optimisation of efficiencies in the depot environment.
• Analyse all input costs within the cost centre.
• Analyse proposed changes to cost allocation (as a result of trials or change in specifications) and assist with data collection of new business proposals.
• Implement cost management initiatives within the team.

Variance Analysis:

• Understand the SAP cost centers and the upload into TM1 to assist in variance explanations.
• Prepare presentation of major variances to Commercial Manager.
• Participate in investigations and audits to support initiatives designed to control costs and maximize profits.
• Provide commentary on the monthly reporting packs, ABC model month on month variance analysis.
• Calculate the actual impact of changes that have been made and new cost allocation and present to Management Accountant.
• Analyse actual KPI’s versus budget and work with the teams to address areas of non-conformance or concern proactively and timeously.

Information and Data Management:

• Ensure team members accurately and regularly capture data into the information system to enable access to reliable data and reporting for trend analysis and decision making.
• Share relevant data with management teams to enable reliable business decision making.
• Take responsibility for data accuracy and completeness for the relevant model.

Customer Service:

• Respond to customer queries regarding information relating to the Operations activities.
• Engage with Fleet Management, Operations team, Planning and Finance to improve efficiency and reduce cost to serve in order to provide cost effective customer service.
• Act as global go-to person for all Operations data quality related questions.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience Required for the Job

Qualifications and Experience

• Matric.
• Minimum a BCom or equivalent.
• CIMA / CA qualification will be an advantage.
• 3 to 5 years management accounting experience, including commercial costing and some exposure to processing or manufacturing environments.

Skills and Competencies

• Computer literacy (SAP and MS Office skills prerequisite).
• Report writing.