Background

Unga Holding is a market leader in the manufacturing & provision of superior human nutrition, animal nutrition and animal health products and services within Eastern Africa.Unga family brands are milled using superior quality grains, selected to achieve high customer satisfaction levels at the same time ensuring that the nutritional value is retained ...

Role Purpose:

The Plant Manager is responsible for providing strategic and operational leadership to ensure the safe, efficient, and profitable operation of the manufacturing plant. The role has end-to-end accountability for achieving production, financial, and operational performance targets by optimizing plant profitability, asset reliability, supply chain integration, quality, safety, and people performance.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Financial Accountability (Enhance Plant Operations)

• Own the overall profitability of the Plant by delivering agreed financial targets including operating profit, production cost, and Earning Before Income Tax (EBIT) contribution.
• Develop, manage, and control the Plant's annual operating (OPEX) and capital (CAPEX) budgets.
• Drive cost optimization initiatives across labour, raw materials, utilities, maintenance, logistics, and overheads without compromising safety or quality.
• Monitor production cost per metric ton and implement corrective actions to improve cost competitiveness.
• Lead financial performance reviews and implement actions to close budget variances.

Supply Chain Integration

• Lead the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process at Plant level to ensure alignment between production, procurement, inventory, and customer demand.
• Collaborate with Procurement to optimize supplier performance, raw material availability, and inventory costs.
• Partner with Commercial teams to ensure customer service levels and production priorities are aligned with business requirements.
• Optimize inventory turnover while minimizing obsolete and slow-moving inventory.
• Ensure production planning supports business growth while maximizing plant capacity utilization.

Data-Driven Performance Management

• Develop and monitor Plant performance dashboards.
• Drive daily, weekly, and monthly performance reviews using operational KPIs.
• Conduct root cause analysis on production losses, downtime, quality deviations, customer complaints, and cost overruns.
• Utilize data analytics to identify trends and drive informed operational decisions.
• Ensure actions arising from performance reviews are implemented and tracked to closure

Asset Reliability Management

• Develop and implement preventive and predictive maintenance strategies.
• Drive equipment reliability programmes that maximize Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
• Develop long-term asset replacement and lifecycle management plans.
• Improve Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) while reducing Mean Time to Repair (MTTR).
• Ensure maintenance projects improve plant reliability and production capability.

Energy & Sustainability

• Lead initiatives to reduce energy, water, steam, compressed air, and fuel consumption.
• Drive utility cost optimization programmes.
• Champion waste reduction, recycling, and environmental sustainability initiatives.
• Ensure compliance with environmental regulations and corporate sustainability targets.
• Improve overall resource utilization across the plant.

Risk Management & Business Continuity

• Develop and maintain the Plant Risk Register.
• Conduct operational risk assessments and implement mitigation plans.
• Lead emergency preparedness and crisis response programmes.
• Ensure Business Continuity Plans are regularly reviewed and tested.
• Protect the plant from operational, regulatory, financial and supply chain risks.

Leadership & Culture

• Foster a high-performance culture built on accountability, ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Drive employee engagement initiatives that improve productivity and retention.
• Build leadership capability through coaching and mentoring.
• Develop succession plans for critical roles within the Plant.
• Promote a culture aligned with business values and ethical standards.

Continuous Improvement

• Lead Lean Manufacturing, Kaizen, TPM, and PaTaMu initiatives to improve productivity, quality, safety, and cost efficiency.
• Deliver measurable annual cost savings through continuous improvement projects.
• Improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), Yield, Waste Reduction, and Labour Productivity through structured improvement initiatives

Stakeholder Management

• Build effective relationships with customers, suppliers, contractors, regulators, auditors, and government agencies.
• Represent the Plant during customer audits and regulatory inspections.
• Ensure contractors comply with safety, quality, and operational standards.
• Collaborate with corporate functions including Finance, HR, Procurement, Supply Chain, Commercial, Engineering, and Quality to achieve business objectives.

Job Requirements

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering/Food Science or related field.
• Minimum eight (8) years’ experience in production management and plant operations, four (4) of which should be at senior management level.
• Knowledge of production planning and control with ERP – Understanding of SAP production module an added advantage.
• Understanding of statutory and regulatory requirements in feed milling operations.
• Good understanding of Food Safety Management Systems and experience in their application in the food industry - Knowledge and good understanding of ISO 22000
• Basic knowledge of milling principles and equipment is preferred
• Good understanding of Continual Improvement Methodology
• Good understanding of Financial Management
• Good understanding of Supply Chain Operations and Management
• Computer proficiency in Ms Office suite of applications.

• Own the overall profitability of the Plant by delivering agreed financial targets including operating profit, production cost, and Earning Before Income Tax (EBIT) contribution.
• Develop, manage, and control the Plant's annual operating (OPEX) and capital (CAPEX) budgets.
• Drive cost optimization initiatives across labour, raw materials, utilities, maintenance, logistics, and overheads without compromising safety or quality.
• Monitor production cost per metric ton and implement corrective actions to improve cost competitiveness.
• Lead financial performance reviews and implement actions to close budget variances.
• Lead the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process at Plant level to ensure alignment between production, procurement, inventory, and customer demand.
• Collaborate with Procurement to optimize supplier performance, raw material availability, and inventory costs.
• Partner with Commercial teams to ensure customer service levels and production priorities are aligned with business requirements.
• Optimize inventory turnover while minimizing obsolete and slow-moving inventory.
• Ensure production planning supports business growth while maximizing plant capacity utilization.
• Develop and monitor Plant performance dashboards.
• Drive daily, weekly, and monthly performance reviews using operational KPIs.
• Conduct root cause analysis on production losses, downtime, quality deviations, customer complaints, and cost overruns.
• Utilize data analytics to identify trends and drive informed operational decisions.
• Ensure actions arising from performance reviews are implemented and tracked to closure
• Develop and implement preventive and predictive maintenance strategies.
• Drive equipment reliability programmes that maximize Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
• Develop long-term asset replacement and lifecycle management plans.
• Improve Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) while reducing Mean Time to Repair (MTTR).
• Ensure maintenance projects improve plant reliability and production capability.
• Lead initiatives to reduce energy, water, steam, compressed air, and fuel consumption.
• Drive utility cost optimization programmes.
• Champion waste reduction, recycling, and environmental sustainability initiatives.
• Ensure compliance with environmental regulations and corporate sustainability targets.
• Improve overall resource utilization across the plant.
• Develop and maintain the Plant Risk Register.
• Conduct operational risk assessments and implement mitigation plans.
• Lead emergency preparedness and crisis response programmes.
• Ensure Business Continuity Plans are regularly reviewed and tested.
• Protect the plant from operational, regulatory, financial and supply chain risks.
• Foster a high-performance culture built on accountability, ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Drive employee engagement initiatives that improve productivity and retention.
• Build leadership capability through coaching and mentoring.
• Develop succession plans for critical roles within the Plant.
• Promote a culture aligned with business values and ethical standards.
• Lead Lean Manufacturing, Kaizen, TPM, and PaTaMu initiatives to improve productivity, quality, safety, and cost efficiency.
• Deliver measurable annual cost savings through continuous improvement projects.
• Improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), Yield, Waste Reduction, and Labour Productivity through structured improvement initiatives
• Build effective relationships with customers, suppliers, contractors, regulators, auditors, and government agencies.
• Represent the Plant during customer audits and regulatory inspections.
• Ensure contractors comply with safety, quality, and operational standards.
• Collaborate with corporate functions including Finance, HR, Procurement, Supply Chain, Commercial, Engineering, and Quality to achieve business objectives.

• Production planning and control with ERP
• SAP production module (advantage)
• Statutory and regulatory requirements in feed milling operations
• Food Safety Management Systems (ISO 22000)
• Milling principles and equipment (preferred)
• Continual Improvement Methodology
• Financial Management
• Supply Chain Operations and Management
• Computer proficiency in Ms Office suite of applications.

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering/Food Science or related field.
• Minimum eight (8) years’ experience in production management and plant operations, four (4) of which should be at senior management level.
• Knowledge of production planning and control with ERP – Understanding of SAP production module an added advantage.
• Understanding of statutory and regulatory requirements in feed milling operations.
• Good understanding of Food Safety Management Systems and experience in their application in the food industry - Knowledge and good understanding of ISO 22000
• Basic knowledge of milling principles and equipment is preferred
• Good understanding of Continual Improvement Methodology
• Good understanding of Financial Management
• Good understanding of Supply Chain Operations and Management
• Computer proficiency in Ms Office suite of applications.