Katherine Parker

Focusing on leading business change which will make our Supply Chain & Logistics network more efficient and effective to reduce our costs, so we can re-invest in our strategic priorities which supports our wider ambitions to Win in Food and Build Brands that Deliver, offering our customers high quality, good value and great service Influencing cross-divisionally and effectively implementing complex projects with extensive scope in terms of quality, cost and time objectives. Accountable for project governance and ensuring that output is of the highest standard. Through inspirational coaching and engagement, lead a team of cross functional project managers and project support managers to seamlessly deliver change throughout a project’s life cycle and BAU support.

• Initially lead the governance for a complex £40.5m project for a new Frozen NDC from design stage and encompassing all workstreams. • Governed the successful delivery of cost based transformation activities resulting in over £8m of savings, also identifying further savings for next FY. • Supporting business continuity change in finding a cost effective and sustainable solution to service all Petrol Filling Stations. Lead the seamless implementation to operations across 15 depots. • Lead the implementation of a legislative driven HMRC Tobacco Track and Traceability system into 14 depots, including processes for and reporting of compliance.

Working for the Logistics Implementation Team responsible for planning, designing and implementing projects ensuring that they are delivered on time and within budget. Projects are varied and include; strategic projects, implementation projects (including systems) and engineering projects (refits/refurbs and new builds). • Played a vital part in ensuring every aspect of compliance and communications were accounted for, providing clear and concise information ensuring supporting teams were fully engaged and ready for the delivery of the information to impacted colleagues in what was a difficult announcement to inform colleagues that two RDCs were closing. • Led one of the largest and most comprehensive revisions of Network Flow within Sainsbury’s Supply & Logistics over the past 15 years. • Delivery of a new systemic voice picking system into a frozen foods depot. Developed a compelling business case, with a challenging less than 2 year payback and gained senior leadership approval for a successfully implementation into a challenging and collectively bargained environment. The solution was then rolled out to 8 ambient RDC’s and a new frozen NDC. • Project managed the Elstree Automation and Refrigeration Replacement, delivering a £140k saving against a £3.9m business case. The majority of the required refrigeration outages were industry leading at 26hrs.

Responsible for ensuring the effective running of a fast-paced transport operation in a high pressure and unionised environment servicing over 100 stores.

This scheme introduced me to the world of Logistics and Supply Chain. It also gave me exposure and line manager experience in both warehouse and transport roles at 2 sites; Bristol Thornbury RDC and then at the International depot in Hemel Hempstead. Whilst at Bristol I had the opportunity to complete my CPC in National Road Haulage which ignited my interest in wanting to learn more about Transport. I developed key people management skills by; learning each aspect of each role required to run an operation at a FMCG site on every shift and demonstrate ability to do each role, had the opportunity to take on additional senior site management responsibilities, gained vast amounts of operational knowledge on international operations at a known consigner site and gained exposure to wider business functions. The placements gave me good grounding as a manager and the confidence and skills to work at a bigger site. This scheme also inspired me to continue my career in Logistics and started to give me an understanding of the significant potential career opportunities in an exciting and leading industry.

During my studies at university, starting as a cashier promoted to sales consultant and then administrator where I was part of the management team where I completed daily administrative tasks including; morning stock counts, investigating cash/stock discrepancies, filing, staff training, preparing store for audit purposes, compliance monitoring & escalation and stock receipting/dispatching.