Stock Controller

Position Overview and Responsibilities

The Stock Controller role at Yalelo Zambia involves comprehensive oversight of inventory transactions related to harvested fish. This includes monitoring processes from receiving, grading, counting, and packing through to storage, further handling, and dispatch of fish products. Accurate record maintenance within work-in-progress warehouses and storage sites is essential, utilizing data capture methods. Daily stock verifications, cycle counts, and reconciliations in collaboration with Stock Clerks must be conducted, with all Goods in Transit (GIT) transactions processed in both Sage and Power BI systems. The role requires the identification and prompt resolution of inventory discrepancies, along with generating harvest dispatch receipts and ensuring dispatch documentation is complete and signed. Responsibilities extend to the management of daily sales, donation, and canteen records, as well as working closely with the Data & Analytics team to synchronize manual entries within systems. Weekly and monthly stock counts in active processing warehouses must be performed, investigating variances and distributing reports accordingly.

Quality Assurance Duties

Collaboration with the Quality Assurance team is critical to confirm that fish products meet internal quality standards, including temperature control requirements before storage or dispatch. The controller must monitor conditions within storage and transit warehouses to prevent spoilage and report any quality concerns or contamination risks to relevant teams for remediation.

Inventory Optimization and Stock Management

Analysis of inventory levels and stock on hand is required to identify slow-moving items or stock at risk of obsolescence, reporting these findings to the superintendent. Responsibilities include generating Sage reconciliation reports, consolidated summaries, stock movement reports, and counting sheets. The controller ensures strict adherence to inventory management procedures on the shop floor and coordinates stock movements in Sage to reflect physical processes. Monitoring the Power BI dashboard for stock data, tracking physical stock movements, and ordering consumables like packaging materials and stickers are essential parts of daily operations. Daily, weekly, and monthly reporting on stock status and reconciliations are also part of the role.

Team Leadership and Compliance

The role involves supervising a team of six Data Capturers, overseeing accuracy throughout the data capture process. Ensuring compliance with relevant regulatory standards such as food safety and HACCP, maintaining documentation and records, and cooperating with regulatory teams and auditors are also expected duties. Effective communication and teamwork with production, quality, and logistics teams are critical, along with active participation in training and professional development initiatives.

Qualifications and Experience

Applicants should hold a bachelor's degree in Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Business Administration, Operations Management, or related fields; a master's degree is advantageous. Professional certification related to warehouse management is preferred. Candidates must have between 3 to 5 years of progressive warehouse, logistics, or operations experience, including at least 3 years in supervisory or managerial roles. Proven expertise in inventory control, stock management systems, and experience within cold chain logistics, ice production, or FMCG/food processing environments is highly desirable. Skills in budget management, resource optimization, and cost-effective procurement strategies, alongside leadership ability and knowledge of health, safety, and environmental compliance, are key.

Skills and Attributes

Essential skills include sound knowledge of inventory management principles, high attention to detail, strong analytical capability, excellent communication and leadership skills, and proficiency with inventory management software such as ERP and WMS. Knowledge of regulatory compliance related to food safety and HACCP standards is mandatory. Preferred personal traits include ethical conduct, teamwork orientation, respectfulness, decisiveness, motivation skills, commitment to self-development, accountability, and responsibility.