Dean Du Toit

• Strategic Leadership - Developing and implementing the company's vision and strategy to stay competitive and meet the packaging needs of FMCG brand owners, identifying market trends, and aligning company goals with brand owners' requirements.
• Operational Oversight - Managing efficient and cost-effective operations while maintaining high-quality standards in the production of flexible packaging materials.
• Business Development - Mapping the Brand Owners Journey by identifying triggers and pain points that prompt prospective Brand Owners to align with our solutions. Foster and nurture a culture of learning, adaptability and a relentless focus on adding value to both prospects and the business.
• Financial Management - Handling budgets, forecasts, and financial reports to ensure profitability and sustainable growth, including investments and cost management.
• Stakeholder Engagement - Building and maintaining strong relationships with stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, and investors to foster trust and collaboration.
• Innovation and Sustainability - Leading efforts in innovation to improve packaging solutions and promote sustainability through eco-friendly practices and materials.
• Regulatory Compliance - Ensuring all operations comply with industry regulations and standards, including environmental and safety standards.
• Talent Management - Attracting, retaining, and developing talent within the organisation to build a capable and motivated workforce.
• Risk Management - Identifying potential risks and implementing strategies to mitigate them, protecting the company's assets and reputation.

• Operations - Oversee the daily business operations, ensuring seamless coordination with various departments such as human resources, legal, sales, marketing, manufacturing (three divisions: Flexible Packaging, Woven Sacks, and Rigid Packaging), finance, IT, and supply chain. Implement strategies to optimize operational capabilities, reduce costs, and execute plans to enhance customer satisfaction and revenue generation. Develop and implement operational budgets, along with preventive measures to safeguard assets and inventory.
• Business Performance - Identify and optimize bottlenecks or hindering components within a supply chain to enhance its capacity. Increase throughput by minimizing equipment downtime, implementing improved maintenance strategies, and reducing the number of production steps. Analyse and develop a strategy to reduce the cycle time (input to output ratio) to improve the efficiency of production lines. Develop and implement an operational strategy that identifies and rectifies overall business performance, including internal variables such as cost, quality, and customer satisfaction.
• 1) Equipment – Asset performance, utilisation and availability.
• 2) Resources Planning – Assets and Human Capital, making better use of company resources.
• 3) Financial – P&L, Cash Flow, OPEX, CAPEX and budgets.
• 4) Competitive Analyses – Domestic and International market analyses.
• 5) Accountability – Performance Management.
• 6) Stakeholder Management – CRM and Board level management.
• 7) Quality – FSSC 22000 Implementation.
• 8) Business Development – Local & International strategic planning, competitive analysis (brand owners and convertors) and execution strategy.
• Develop Value Stream Mapping process to identify and highlight inefficiencies and non-value-adding processes within the organization. Formulate specific operational effectiveness objectives, including quantifying revenues and costs with an action plan and associated measurements. Specify the roles, responsibilities, timelines, and resources required to achieve these objectives.
• Mentor - Introduction of modular based training & development of local and expatriate employees to develop and implement a Performance Management based culture.
• Change Agent - Spearhead and lead specific initiatives pertaining to growth and turnaround strategy after pandemic (covid).
• Business Development - Increased export market by engaging existing and new clients across Africa to increase product and customer portfolios for top line growth with new high performance production assets.
• Project Management - OEM technical and financial analysis, installations, commissioning and start-up of new high performance flexible packaging lines – Wide web format CI Flexo, Lamination and slitting.
• Implemented process improvements that increased output quality and minimized waste.
• Directed cross-functional teams in executing supply chain optimization initiatives.
• Fostered a culture of continuous improvement through training and mentoring programs for staff.
• Influenced company culture by promoting core values like integrity, accountability, innovation, teamwork, and excellence throughout daily operations.

• Operational Excellence - Oversight of equipment effectiveness (OEE), quantifying productivity, machine reliability and downtime, manage investments in technology and maintenance to improve overall performance. Measure the efficiency of inventory management, balancing stock levels and responsiveness to demand to determine inventory turnover ratio. Assess overall efficiency and the impact of cost controls throughout the manufacturing process to determine the cost per unit produced.
• Financial Performance - track year on year sales increases, reflecting market penetration and business expansion to determine revenue growth rate. Analysis of gross margins to determine the difference between sales and COGS, indicating the efficiency of production and supply chain. Assess liquidity and the liability to fund operations, investments and strategic initiatives to determine monthly cash flow.
• Strategic growth and market position - analysis of the company's share of total industry sales, benchmarking growth against competitors. Measure and analyse growth in new customers and retention rates of existing clients, indicating the value proposition and customer satisfaction. Measure consistency in meeting delivery commitments.
• Risk management and business continuity - measure the ability to react to supply chain bottlenecks, equipment failures, or other operational interruptions.
• Quality assurance and compliance - measure the proportion of products failing to meet the quality standards, driving continuous improvement initiatives to determine the defective rate. Monitor the attainment of industry certifications (BRC, FSSC22000), required for market access and credibility.
• Developed and implemented comprehensive marketing strategies to expand market share in West Africa.
• Managed a diverse team of professionals, fostering a collaborative work environment for increased productivity.
• Developed strategic partnerships with key stakeholders to expand the organization''s reach and influence.
• Developed and implemented organizational strategies to achieve set goals and objectives and secured long-term success.
• Monitored key business risks and established risk management procedures.
• Directed technological improvements, reducing waste and business bottlenecks.
• Founded performance- and merit-based evaluation system to assess staff performance.

• Greenfield Project – Designed and planned a functional Flexible Packaging (Offset & Extrusion manufacturing facility (11,800m2) with production capacity of 28,000 tons per annum. Managed the construction from commencement in April 2016 through to delivery in February 2018 including the management of all plant and machinery installations and commissioning. Recruited and manage a team of 100 professionals, launched production across three product lines, established a global raw material supply chain and secured a premium portfolio of blue-chip clients.
• Oversaw budgetary and financial activities and implemented strategies to grow business and bottom line.
• Built high-energy, forward-thinking team to modernise legacy operations and keep organization agile in changing conditions.
• Analyse external industry perspectives to deliver measurable improvements in business decision and risk management.
• Drove company vision with collaborative employee engagement techniques and strategic leadership.
• Attracted and retained diverse and productive employee teams with thoughtful hiring initiatives and oversight.
• Monitored company performance by measuring and analysing results and minimizing impact of variances.
• Established and oversaw strategic business actions and streamlined operations.

• Led organizational development changes, enabling organization to better respond and adapt to industry and market changes.
• Served as strategic advisor and functional expert on critical strategic and operational matters.
• Cultivated and maintained industry relationships and customer partnerships to capitalize on opportunities and maximize business success.
• Organized and oversaw capital improvement projects to maintain business viability.
• Revitalized business plans and realigned company objectives to increase overall profits.
• Established new workflow and employee training processes to improve operational efficiency.
• Fostered proactive attitude and future-focused thinking among staff in fast-paced environment.
• Managed budgets and financial forecasting to ensure fiscal responsibility and maintain profit margins.
• Facilitated regular leadership meetings to discuss progress on strategic goals, identify opportunities for improvement, and address challenges proactively.
• Developed high-performing teams through effective hiring, training, and performance management strategies.
• Mentored employees at all levels within the organization to support their professional development goals.
• Partnered with HR on employee engagement initiatives that enhanced workplace morale while reducing turnover rates.
• Aligned corporate strategy with industry trends by staying current on best practices within the competitive landscape.
• Established metrics-based performance evaluations for a more objective assessment of employee contributions.
• Championed change management initiatives for smoother organizational transitions during periods of growth or restructuring.

• Created project plans with established timelines, assigned to appropriate teams and managed workflow throughout construction.
• Made changes to project scope and cost and implemented most effective change management processes to keep project up-to-date.
• Prepared cost estimates for projects of varying sizes.
• Drove continuous improvement of project delivery process by providing strong leadership.
• Reviewed budget and subcontractor estimates in detail and analysed for accuracy with scope of work relevancy in mind.
• Managed contracts with vendors and suppliers by assigning tasks and communicating expected deliverables.
• Modified project plans when needed to better align with organizational objectives.
• Led cross-functional teams to deliver projects on time and within budget.
• Developed project plans outlining scope, timelines, and resources required for successful execution.
• Implemented risk management strategies to mitigate potential project challenges and ensure smooth operations.
• Facilitated stakeholder meetings to align project goals with business objectives and gather feedback.
• Drove strategic initiatives that aligned with corporate objectives, resulting in streamlined operations and increased productivity.
• Delivered exceptional customer satisfaction by proactively addressing client concerns and meeting or exceeding expectations throughout the engagement process.
• Fostered a culture of innovation and creativity within the project team, leading to improved problem-solving capabilities and enhanced outcomes.

• Asset Management – Turnkey management of production fixed assets, PPM, CM and AMC’s, utilisation, performance, availability and performance-based management.
• Technical Support & Engineering – Service and maintenance engineering department, manage end-to-end business engineering requirements and needs, preventative and corrective maintenance functions, spare parts inventory management, internal and external service level agreements, purchase and maintenance contracts and commercial negotiations.
• Procurement & Supply Chain – Materials and consumables quality compliance, vendor pre-qualification, supply contracts/agreements, contract negotiations and annual material planning.
• Manufacturing – Process engineering and optimisation, waste management, lean manufacturing implementation resources planning and quality control.
• Strategic Capacity & Revenue Planning – Planning of revenue and expense management, inventory control, labour and regular daily tasks for the department. Implementation of internal and external service level agreements. (Dubai investment park expansion project, see additional role).
• Financial – Annual budgets, CAPEX and OPEX cost analysis and financial controls implementation, material pricing, inventory/spares and indirect and direct labour cost analysis.
• Performance Management – KPIs, performance reviews, appraisals, training and development of employees.

Project Lead (Additional Role)

Project Lead for the Al Nisr Publishing Group (The Gulf News) for the construction of a new combined Greenfield newspaper and magazine production facility for a rapidly expanding print group. This involved projecting the product definition (5 to 10 years), forecasting material consumption and future requirements for print within the region and understanding market trends. The resulting output led to the selection of suitable capital equipment for the Commercial and Newspaper printing facilities including issuing tenders and technical and commercial negotiations with equipment suppliers for major capital equipment including installation and commissioning. The Project Lead chaired all project meetings and served as the focal point for all sub-consultants in all areas including design (concept, preliminary and final) and construction. Commercial support was provided to project managers throughout the contract delivery cycles advising on project control variations and commercial considerations. The Project Lead also compiled project budgets for the entire project life cycle including compiling staffing requirements and running costs for the new operation.