Warehouse Manager

Warehouse Manager Location: Brighouse, West Yorkshire Hours: 40 hours per week, Monday to Friday Reporting to: Operations Director Salary: £45,000 – £50,000 The company is an importer, distributor, and brand builder of world-class beers from Europe, the USA, and Japan. They work closely with independent brewers and a diverse customer base including bar owners, pub groups, wholesalers, restaurateurs, and major retailers. Role Overview The Warehouse Manager is responsible for the safe, efficient, and compliant day-to-day operation of the National Distribution Centre. Reporting to the Operations Director, the role translates operational plans and priorities into consistent site-level execution, ensuring service levels, cost control, and people standards are delivered within a fast-paced FMCG distribution environment. This role plays a key part in enabling short-term performance excellence and long-term efficiency improvements across the warehouse operation. Key Responsibilities Operational Leadership • Lead and manage all daily warehouse activities including goods-in, stock control, replenishment, picking, repacking, loading, returns, samples, POS, and glassware. • Ensure process disciplines, working standards, and operational controls are consistently applied across all warehouse activities. • Plan and prioritise labour resources across daily and weekly peaks in collaboration with the Operations Director and Assistant Warehouse Manager, escalating risk, constraints, or service impacts as appropriate. • Work closely with the Transport Manager to align warehouse output with transport plans and delivery schedules. People Management & Culture • Lead, coach, and develop warehouse colleagues to create a high-performance culture focused on engagement, accountability, safety, and continuous improvement. • Manage performance, attendance, and development plans ensuring clear expectations, regular feedback, and capability development across the warehouse team. • Supporting teams through operational and systems change. Continuous Improvement • Taking a ‘right-first-time’ approach, drive process improvement initiatives to enhance productivity, accuracy, space utilisation, and service performance. Use data and root-cause analysis to identify inefficiencies and improvement opportunities. • Support the implementation and optimisation of Warehouse Management System (WMS) and site layout improvements ensuring solutions practical, scalable, and aligned to operational needs. • Apply sound judgement when balancing process complexity, system configuration, and cost-benefit considerations, escalating recommendations where investment decisions are required. Resource Planning & Cost Control • Plan labour and equipment resources in line with forecast volumes and operational priorities. • Use a data driven mindset to improve labour efficiency and cost control. • Minimise waste, damages, and rework while maintaining high service level standards. Training & Capability • Ensure all warehouse colleagues are capability assessed and appropriately trained for their roles, including inductions, system training, and equipment training. • Review training needs regularly to ensure skills, certifications, and compliance remain current. Health, Safety & Compliance • Lead a Health & Safety culture where safety is seen as something we do for our people. • Promote open reporting of hazards, near-misses, and unsafe behaviours, treating these as opportunities to learn, improve, and prevent harm. • Chair Health & Safety meetings, and lead incident and near-miss investigation, ensuring effective Health & Safety training across the warehouse in line with group Health & Safety policies and expectations set by the Operations Director. • Ensure compliance with FLT operations, daily equipment checks, defect reporting, and safe working practices Skills, Knowledge & Experience • Proven warehouse management experience within FMCG or fast-moving distribution environments. • Strong people leadership experience within a changing or improving operation. • Demonstrated experience delivering continuous improvement and operational excellence. • Experience supporting WMS implementation or optimisation is highly desirable. • Strong planning, analytical, and problem-solving skills. • Effective communicator with the ability to engage and influence stakeholders. Hours & Conditions • Warehouse operating hours: 06:00 – 22:00 • Management flexibility required to meet business needs • Monthly paid salary • Annual holiday entitlement: 28 days per year (accrued monthly). Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) • Pick productivity (Cases or KG per Hour) • Order Pick Accuracy (%) • On-Time-In-Full (OTIF) • Labour Cost vs Budget • Stock Accuracy • Health & Safety Performance • Absence and Attrition For further information please submit your CV and covering letter. Unity Personnel are acting as a Recruitment Agency in respect of this role