Operations Manager

Søstrene Grene is a Danish family-owned company that was founded in 1973 and currently has more than 320 stores in 15 countries. Our stores offer a wide range of home accessories, furniture, kitchen utensils, hobby items, party supplies, gift wrapping, office supplies, children's interiors and toys, as well as seasonal products. New products arrive in stores every week.

In Venlo, the new distribution centre will be opened in mid-2025 with which we supply our E-commerce and Retail. The DC is equipped with the latest technologies and has a size of 45,000 m2, where 100 to 250 FTE are operationally employed. Fully geared to the growth target for the coming years.
 

Operations Manager

We are looking for two Operations Managers for both our Retail and E-Commerce business. In this position you are responsible for the management of the warehouse, whereby the functions for the Retail and E-commerce businesses together are at the cradle to create the best foundation for our warehouse operations. These positions offer the unique opportunity to build your own team and organization.

• Are you the experienced manager who does not shy away from any challenge?
• Your experience as a warehouse manager within logistics will come into its own at one of the top players in retail.
• Do you have experience with and the desire to further develop our working methods in the field of Supply Chain?
• Do you have relevant management experience within a distribution center/warehouse and are you motivated to implement and secure continuous changes?
• Are you a decisive and loving people manager with demonstrable project experience and sincere attention to people?
• And do you want to be part of a dedicated group of sisters (as we call each other, regardless of gender)?

Then maybe you are our new Operations Manager?

Your role at Søstrene Grene

The initial focus of both Operations Managers is on:

• Implementing, optimizing the operation and developing and motivating the teams in a constructive and loving way.
• In addition, you ensure that quality and cost control are in balance.
• From mid-2025, you will be involved in realising the upscaling of logistics activities in the DC, optimising logistics processes by means of a new WMS, advising on allocation, forecasting and planning, increasing stock, and increasing delivery reliability/logistics performance.
• You are responsible for the departmental budget and annual plan (logistics strategy). Furthermore, you have a lot of interaction with the internal departments, and you manage both quality and productivity.
• Professionalizing the organization is essential, where you will be challenged both on a managerial level and on an analytical level.

An exciting opportunity

Reporting to our Head of Operations will give you the opportunity to become responsible for the day-to-day operation and management of our new distribution center. You will work very closely with your fellow Operations Manager, and you will also be directly responsible for the team leaders as well as some support staff. Together with your team, you ensure that the logistics processes are optimized and executed throughout the entire value chain. You will be well supported by diverse teams and colleagues from the head office and the DC in Aarhus.

Retail role

The retail warehouse team supports our stores across Europe, and e-com operations, with the right deliveries at the right time. The operation is a traditional warehouse operation, based on a positive performance culture, and it is our goal is to make a partly automation in the nearest future. Besides running the daily operations including functions as Inbound, Internal transport and allocation, Picking, and Outbound, we constantly strive to improve and optimize by identifying and implementing better processes and/or technology. We use various systems to help us in the daily operation, but our primary tool will be SAP EWM.

E-commerce role

You will oversee the fulfilment operation from A-Z, meaning inbound, storage, pick and pack and staging. The picking process is fully automated with a goods too person robotic solution, and we have also the right sized packaging machines for optimizing the packaging flow. However, there will also be a manual packing prosses for the orders too large for the packing machines.

About you

You are an inspiring leader with ambitions for both your team and yourself. You set goals and directions with an analytical, responsible and trusting approach. With your strong communication skills, both internally and externally, you know how to clearly convey these to all relevant stakeholders. At the same time, you are able to see the big picture, both for yourself and for your team, across the borders of different countries. An important goal for your success will be to secure the culture and its value within the organization and take it to an even higher level.

• You have HBO level with relevant knowledge in the field of Supply Chain, logistics processes/optimization and WMS applications

• You have 3 to 5 years’ experience as OPS Manager or similar position.
• Operations experience within e-com or wholesale warehouse/Logistics

• You have a modern leadership/management – Roods in a positive performance culture; Delegate, involve, motivate, present, equality, corporation,

• Behavior and personality are based on values such as trust, empathy, integrity, authenticity

• Master both Duch and English on a professional level
• Trained in Leadership and Management
• Driven by facts, databased decision making
• Know how to work with creating and maintaining an organization and corporate culture (SG’s culture)
• Strong competences within IT Systems and hardware
• Flexible regarding working our and travel activities
• You are ambitious and driven, with your own vision

The Søstrene Grene spirit

At Søstrene Grene, we strive to touch people's hearts by creating a wondrous universe that offers a break from everyday life.

Our 'Søsterånd' (sister spirit), together with our values, defines our culture. You will find that we value values such as respect, trust and honesty and that we treat everyone in accordance with these values. We work as a team and you can always count on a helping hand from your new sisters (and yes, we all call ourselves sisters, regardless of gender).

Practical information:

Starting date: March 1, 2025

Onboarding:           An induction process of approximately 3 months in Aarhus (Denmark)

Travel:                   Willing to travel a few times a year to Søstrene Grene locations.

If you have any questions about the position, please contact Kim Vervoort, P&C Manager via e-mail: kim.vervoort@sostrenegrene.com.

We look forward to hearing from you. Please upload your application with attached CV. We conduct interviews on an ongoing basis and reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have found the right candidate.