Warehouse Manager
Company: DoughGirl / The Chuckling Cheese Co
Department: Warehouse & Operations
Location: Croft, Skegness, Lincolnshire
Contract: Permanent, Full-Time 45-50 hours per week
Reports to: Senior Management / Directors
Role Purpose
We are looking for an experienced, organised and proactive Warehouse Manager to take overall responsibility for the safe, accurate and efficient operation of our warehouse.
The Warehouse Manager will lead the warehouse team and take ownership of goods-in, stock control, storage, replenishment, picking, packing and dispatch, ensuring products move through the operation accurately and efficiently.
This is a hands-on management role. You will be expected to spend significant time within the operation, setting standards, supporting the team, identifying problems and ensuring that agreed processes are being followed.
As DoughGirl and The Chuckling Cheese Co continue to grow, you will also play an important role in improving warehouse processes, increasing productivity, reducing errors and developing an operation capable of handling increasing volumes.
Key ResponsibilitiesWarehouse Operations
- Take overall responsibility for the day-to-day running of the warehouse.
- Plan and organise warehouse activity to meet daily operational requirements.
- Ensure workloads, staffing and priorities are clearly communicated to the warehouse team.
- Ensure orders are picked, packed and dispatched accurately and within required deadlines.
- Coordinate goods-in, storage, stock movements, picking, packing and dispatch activities.
- Ensure products and packaging are stored safely, correctly and in clearly defined locations.
- Maintain a clean, organised and efficient warehouse layout.
- Ensure warehouse processes and standard operating procedures are consistently followed.
- Identify operational problems early and take ownership of resolving them.
- Work closely with Bakery, Purchasing, Stock Control, Customer Service and other departments to ensure the smooth movement of products throughout the business.
- Plan for seasonal peaks, promotions and periods of increased order volume.
- Ensure warehouse equipment is available, maintained and used correctly.
Stock Control
- Take responsibility for maintaining accurate physical stock throughout the warehouse.
- Ensure all stock movements are recorded correctly.
- Maintain clearly defined and accurate warehouse locations.
- Organise and oversee regular cycle counts and stocktakes.
- Investigate stock discrepancies and identify their root cause.
- Put corrective actions in place where recurring discrepancies are identified.
- Ensure appropriate FIFO/FEFO stock rotation is followed.
- Monitor short-dated, damaged, incorrectly stored or slow-moving stock.
- Ensure damaged or unsuitable products are appropriately segregated and recorded.
- Work with Purchasing and Stock Control to maintain appropriate stock availability.
- Help reduce stock losses, damages and unnecessary waste.
Picking, Packing & Dispatch
- Ensure customer, wholesale and other outgoing orders are processed accurately and efficiently.
- Monitor picking and packing performance throughout the day.
- Ensure dispatch deadlines and courier collection times are consistently achieved.
- Ensure orders are packaged to the required company standard.
- Monitor picking, packing and labelling errors and investigate recurring issues.
- Ensure courier and pallet collections are prepared correctly.
- Ensure dispatch paperwork, labels and documentation are accurate.
- Respond quickly to courier, system or operational issues that could affect dispatch.
- Ensure problems are escalated rather than ignored when they cannot immediately be resolved.
- Continuously look for opportunities to improve picking and packing productivity without compromising accuracy or product quality.
Goods-In
- Ensure incoming deliveries are received efficiently and accurately.
- Ensure deliveries are checked against purchase orders and delivery documentation.
- Ensure shortages, damages, incorrect deliveries or quality concerns are reported promptly.
- Ensure incoming stock is booked in correctly and moved to the appropriate location.
- Prevent unrecorded or unidentified stock from entering warehouse locations.
- Ensure food products and ingredients are handled and stored appropriately following delivery.
Team Leadership
- Lead, organise and motivate the warehouse team.
- Allocate daily roles, responsibilities and priorities.
- Ensure every team member understands what is expected of them.
- Set clear standards for productivity, accuracy, housekeeping and behaviour.
- Monitor individual and team performance.
- Hold team members accountable where expected standards are not being achieved.
- Recognise good performance and encourage team members to take pride in their work.
- Conduct regular team briefings.
- Ensure new employees receive appropriate induction and training.
- Identify additional training requirements within the team.
- Develop employees so that knowledge and responsibility are shared across the department.
- Support performance management, absence management and other people-management processes.
- Ensure sufficient team coverage is available for operational requirements.
- Create a positive working environment based on teamwork, accountability and continuous improvement.
Productivity & Performance
The Warehouse Manager will be expected to actively measure and improve warehouse performance.
This will include monitoring areas such as:
- Orders dispatched on time.
- Picking accuracy.
- Packing accuracy.
- Stock accuracy.
- Units/orders processed per labour hour.
- Warehouse labour utilisation.
- Goods-in processing time.
- Stock discrepancies.
- Product damages.
- Warehouse waste.
- Courier or dispatch failures.
- Customer issues caused by warehouse errors.
Performance information should be used to identify problems and drive improvements rather than simply being recorded.
Continuous Improvement
- Regularly review how work moves through the warehouse.
- Identify bottlenecks, wasted movement and inefficient processes.
- Improve warehouse layout and product positioning where this can increase productivity.
- Develop and document clear warehouse procedures.
- Introduce practical improvements that make work faster, safer or more accurate.
- Investigate recurring operational problems and address their root cause.
- Use warehouse data and KPIs to identify improvement opportunities.
- Encourage the warehouse team to suggest improvements.
- Work with senior management on future warehouse capacity and operational requirements.
- Support the introduction of new systems, technology and automation where appropriate.
Food Safety & Hygiene
As part of a food business, maintaining appropriate food safety standards is an important responsibility of this role.
The Warehouse Manager will:
- Ensure company food safety and hygiene procedures are followed.
- Ensure food products are stored appropriately.
- Maintain required segregation of products where necessary.
- Ensure allergen controls and procedures are followed.
- Ensure appropriate stock rotation.
- Maintain high standards of warehouse cleanliness and housekeeping.
- Ensure damaged, contaminated or unsuitable stock is appropriately segregated.
- Ensure pest-control requirements and reporting procedures are followed.
- Escalate any food safety concern immediately.
Health & Safety
- Take responsibility for maintaining safe working practices within the warehouse.
- Ensure employees follow company Health & Safety procedures.
- Ensure appropriate PPE is available and correctly used.
- Ensure warehouse equipment is operated only by appropriately trained employees.
- Identify hazards and take action to remove or reduce risks.
- Support and maintain warehouse risk assessments.
- Ensure accidents, incidents and near misses are reported and investigated.
- Ensure walkways, fire exits and working areas remain clear.
- Ensure racking and storage areas are used safely.
- Ensure manual-handling procedures are followed.
- Challenge unsafe behaviour immediately.
Our 5 Core Principles
Everyone working for DoughGirl and The Chuckling Cheese Co is expected to demonstrate our five Core Principles in the way they approach their role.
BE ACCOUNTABLE
Take responsibility for your work
Take ownership of the warehouse operation, its standards and its results. Problems should be identified, investigated and resolved rather than passed on or ignored.
BE COLLABORATIVE
Work together, we are one team!
Work closely with the warehouse team and other departments. The warehouse is part of a wider operation, and good communication and teamwork are essential.
BE PROUD
Put the work in and be proud of your achievements!
Set high standards for accuracy, organisation, cleanliness and productivity and create a warehouse operation the team can be proud of.
BE BETTER
Keep learning, there’s always room for improvement
Continually look for ways to improve processes, productivity, systems, standards and your own management skills.
BE PROACTIVE
Stay curious and apply your initiative to be efficient within your role
Identify potential problems before they become bigger issues. Look ahead, plan effectively and take action rather than waiting to be asked.
Skills & ExperienceEssential
- Previous experience managing or supervising a warehouse operation.
- Experience leading and developing a team.
- Strong understanding of stock control and inventory accuracy.
- Experience within a fast-moving warehouse or fulfilment environment.
- Strong organisational and planning skills.
- Good problem-solving ability.
- Strong attention to detail.
- Confident using warehouse, inventory or order-management systems.
- Good numerical and analytical skills.
- Comfortable working with operational KPIs and productivity measures.
- Confident communicating expectations and addressing poor performance.
- Able to prioritise effectively during busy periods.
- A practical, hands-on management style.
- Willingness to take ownership and responsibility for operational performance.
Desirable
- Experience within food manufacturing, food warehousing or FMCG.
- Experience within e-commerce fulfilment.
- Experience managing wholesale and direct-to-consumer dispatch.
- Food Hygiene/Food Safety qualification.
- Health & Safety training.
- Manual Handling training.
- Forklift or relevant warehouse equipment certification.
- Experience working with parcel couriers and pallet networks.
- Experience managing seasonal peaks and temporary employees.
- Experience implementing warehouse systems or process improvements.
- Experience developing warehouse KPIs and productivity reporting.
Personal Attributes
The successful Warehouse Manager will be:
- Organised – able to maintain control of a busy operation.
- Visible – actively involved with the warehouse team rather than managing entirely from an office.
- Decisive – able to make sensible operational decisions quickly.
- Analytical – interested in understanding why problems occur.
- Consistent – maintaining standards every day, not only when problems arise.
- Approachable – able to build a strong relationship with the team.
- Firm when required – comfortable challenging poor standards or performance.
- Improvement-focused – always looking for a better way of working.
- Commercially aware – understanding that errors, waste and inefficient labour all have a cost to the business.
- Dependable – someone senior management can trust to take ownership of the warehouse.
Key Measures of Success
Performance within the role will be measured against operational results including:
Stock Accuracy – physical stock consistently matches system stock.
Dispatch Performance – orders leave on time and meet required courier deadlines.
Order Accuracy – picking, packing and dispatch errors are minimised.
Productivity – warehouse labour is used efficiently and productivity improves over time.
Waste & Damage – avoidable stock losses and damages are reduced.
Warehouse Standards – the warehouse remains clean, organised, safe and easy to operate.
Team Performance – employees are trained, productive and understand their responsibilities.
Continuous Improvement – recurring problems result in corrective action and measurable improvements.
Health & Safety – safe working practices are consistently maintained.
Food Safety – products are stored, handled and rotated in accordance with company standards.
What Success Looks Like
A successful Warehouse Manager will build an operation where stock can be trusted, orders consistently leave correctly and on time, the warehouse is organised and safe, and team members understand exactly what is expected of them.
Problems will not simply be dealt with repeatedly; their causes will be investigated and processes improved to prevent them happening again.
As the business grows, the Warehouse Manager will be expected to develop the people, processes, systems and capacity of the warehouse so that the operation can handle increased volumes without sacrificing accuracy, safety, product quality or customer service.
Pay: £39,780.00-£44,200.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company pension
- Discounted or free food
- Employee discount
- Free parking
- Health & wellbeing programme
- On-site parking
- Private medical insurance
Work Location: In person
