Plant Manager

Irca Group•Elk Grove, IL

1d•Onsite

About The Position

IRCA is a prominent international provider of semi-finished ingredients for the bakery, pastry, and gelato markets, catering to independent producers and large food manufacturers. Their core products include chocolate, creams, pastry mixes, and gelato ingredients. Headquartered in Italy, IRCA was acquired by Advent International in July 2022 and has a strong growth history, including recent acquisitions of Cesarin, Anastasi, and a leading manufacturer of sweet and cereal products in Europe and the US. These acquisitions have expanded IRCA's product portfolio to include sweet particulates, chocolate confections, baked inclusions, variegates, and fruit purées. With a combined revenue of 1 billion in 2023 and 22 manufacturing facilities across Europe, the US, and Vietnam, IRCA is a global leader in the semi-finished ingredients industry. The Plant Manager is accountable for leading the overall operations at the Elk Grove Village, IL plant. This role involves building capability within the plant team to ensure sustainable performance and growth through capacity, resource, and talent planning, in close partnership with functional leaders. The Plant Manager will ensure strong collaboration with Irca Group leaders and commercial colleagues to align with overall manufacturing planning and performance, ensuring plant teams understand the vision, purpose, and their contribution to being a valued customer partner.

Requirements

8 + years of progressive experience in food manufacturing and plant operations at a leadership level
BA/BS/MS in Engineering, Business, Food Science preferred
Demonstrated success as a change agent & developing/implementing continuous improvement initiatives and accountability programs
Strong hands-on leader who leads by example and actively engages in day - to -day operational challenges.
Demonstrated success assessing, developing, and retaining top talent
Proven ability to drive process improvements, adhere to budgets, and maintain regulatory compliance
Financial analysis acumen and experience maintaining budgets or capital spend
Ability to deliver business result
Fluent in verbal and written English required.
Proven ability to lead direct and in direct reports
Strategic Thinking, Managing Change, Critical Thinking, Continuous Cost Focus, Technical Expertise, Influence and Delivery of Sustainable Results
Develop strong working relationships with colleagues across various departments, including financial, supply chain, sales and commercial entities, and seniority level leaders
Strong People leadership skills
Ability to coach and develop the work force
Multi-tasking, organizational and time management expertise

Nice To Haves

Ability to verbally communicate in Spanish preferred

Responsibilities

Development of plant strategy, underpinned by a master schedule in line with growth plans and relevant manufacturing strategy
Lead a performance management and measurement discipline across the plant, with focused analysis of plan performance data, recognizing individual/team achievements, setting clear plans to address performance gaps, understanding trends and proactively identifying opportunities for improvement
Working with our manufacturing and broader functional leadership to ensure a connected view of plant priorities and connectivity to our EUM/commercial strategy, in line with customer segmentation criteria – ensuring a clear representation of plant perspectives, ideas and and considerations needed to inform best decision making for the company
Work with manufacturing leadership to ensure that all plants are sharing best practice across the plant network, participating in our Plant Leadership community
Driving proactive resolution for areas that do/could potentially impact plant performance through partnering with the relevant function in IO (QSHE, Engineering, Supply Chain, Procurement)
Leading out on improvement of plant Organizational Health targets (including active & clearly communicated engagement plans across selected areas of priority)
Lead plant level productivity across areas of asset management, performance, and efficiencies in line with agreed business terms
Lead and embed a CI mindset across the plant, actively seeking improvements and efficiency of operations, demonstrating an ability and team encouragement to identify and drive continuous improvement initiatives
Lead key change initiatives across the plant (and connect to plant master schedule), with required functional support e.g., automation, digital, sustainability etc.
Play an active part in New Product Development (NPD) processes in line with agreed ways of working, partnering with RDA and commercial as required to bring clarity to implications e.g., cost, service levels, OTIF etc.