Jason Smyth

As the Kelcold Manager, I oversee the overall profit and loss of the business unit while ensuring efficiency throughout the factory. My goal at Kelcold is to fulfill orders with utmost accuracy and efficiency for our clients. As a toll processor, we don't own the products, but we guarantee their precise and prompt delivery to the required destinations.. My previous role was the Regional Delivery Manager at Primary ITO. I oversaw a team of Regional Coordinators' and Training Advisors; we provide apprenticeship and industry training across all aspects of Horticulture. My aim was to streamline and standardise performance and grow the business and I successfully completed that goal. Within the ambit of this role has been a strong requirement to define and standardise processes across the team, and then apply that in a wider sense throughout the business. I have had a strong hand developing the Health and Safety culture, providing the slogan that is now in use across the company. My business unit has shown substantial improvement and developed a good future pipeline of ongoing growth. This job is very rewarding in the sense that trainees gain excellent work skills that benefit themselves, their industries, and New Zealand as a whole. My previous role was as a Production Manager for Kraft Heinz, running the King Street & Frederick St plants. Production was over 100,000 tonnes at King St and 10,000 tonnes at Frederick St. I managed 18 production lines with over 360 permanent staff. This was a multi-faceted role, providing operational leadership to ensure achievement of cost, quality, growth and people targets. Crucial was the ability to work across the differing aspects of the business, Marketing, Engineering, Product Development, Quality, to ensure the factory had capability, and could deliver on an overall set of KPI's. Insightful Manager with experience directing and improving operations through effective employee motivational strategies and strong policy enforcement. Proficient in best practices, market trends and regulatory requirements of industry operations. Talented leader with analytical approach to business planning and day-to-day problem-solving.