Manager Back Office Operations FMCG

JOB DESCRIPTION
Head of Back Office Operations FMCG (Retail)
Job TitleManager Back Office Operations FMCGDepartmentBack Office Operations / Inventory, Reconciliations & MISReports ToGeneral Manager / Finance DirectorLocationRajkot, INDIAEmployment TypeFull-Time, Senior ManagementJob Purpose
To lead and control all back-office functions supporting a multi-store FMCG retail operation including inventory management, stock reconciliation, supplier and financial reconciliations, pricing, and management reporting. The role holder is accountable for the accuracy, timeliness and integrity of stock and financial data across all stores, driving loss prevention (shrinkage/excess/negative stock), supplier accountability, and delivering reliable MIS to senior management to support commercial decision-making.
Key Responsibilities
1. Procurement, Ordering & Supplier Management
Sugar & FMCG Ordering: Oversee ordering of key commodities like sugar, including ATL release, order follow-up, and coordination on deliveries to all stores.
Major Local Supplier Ordering: Manage ordering and pricing for major local suppliers
¢ Import & Local Price Management: Direct daily and monthly price updates for import and local suppliers across all stores, and issue price-change communications and price comparison reports to management.
¢ New Product & Pricing Queries: Approve creation/addition of new products in-system and resolve pricing and stock-transfer queries raised by stores.
2. Inventory, Stock Control & Shrinkage Management
¢ Negative / Non-Moving & Excess Stock Reporting: Direct monthly negative/non-moving stock reports and commodity-wise excess stock reports (20+ weeks of stock), with follow-up to store level.
¢ Shrinkage Management: Oversee shrinkage reporting and investigation of shrinkage postings; review and query variances posted across all stores.
¢ Stock vs Sales & Weeks-of-Stock Reporting: Ensure monthly stock-vs-sales reports and weeks-of-stock analysis are produced for all stores.
¢ Closing Stock Reporting: Sign off on monthly closing stock reports across all Chipiku Plus stores and Chipiku stores.
¢ Damage, Loss & Slow-Moving Stock: Monitor import item loss/damage reporting and slow-moving/damaged item checks arising from stock takes.
¢ Category-Specific Stock Controls: Oversee specialised stock counts and reporting, including Sobo, sugar, carrier bags, laundry stock, and CP stock counts across all stores.
3. Financial & Supplier Reconciliations
¢ Supplier Reconciliations: Ensure timely reconciliation and query resolution for major local and import suppliers.
¢ Group Company Reconciliations: Oversee reconciliation of ~14 group company / inter-company accounts.
¢ Bank & Cheque Reconciliations: Direct unpaid cheque tracking and bank statement reconciliations, including monthly summaries and follow-ups with Head Office finance.
¢ Utility & Payment Reconciliations: Oversee ESCOM (utilities), POS, and Airtel Money reconciliations across the store network.
¢ GRN & GRTS Reconciliation: Ensure weekly GRN audits are performed to identify errors, and GRN reconciliation is completed across store locations.
4. Management Reporting & MIS
¢ Sales, Expenditure & Margin Reporting: Produce and review Sales vs Expenditure analysis, sales breakup reports (Sugar/Liquor/Sobo), gross margin (daily) and below-margin reports, and staff-vs-sales reporting.
¢ Store Expense Reporting: Deliver monthly Chipiku Stores/Plus expenses (P&L) reports to management.
¢ Cash & Coupon Reporting: Oversee fertilizer cash/coupon sales records, cash refund reporting, and cash-holding checks across shops.
¢ Financial Statement Support: Prepare comparative Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss statements for management review.
¢ Pricing Compliance Reporting: Review and escalate reports on cost/selling price deviations above threshold (e.g., 30%) to relevant stores.
5. Promotions, Transfers & Store Operations Support
¢ Promotions Management: Oversee loading of promotions across all Chipiku Plus stores and daily/periodic promotion inventory checks.
¢ Internal Stock Transfers: Manage internal stock transfer processes and resolve transfer mismatch queries.
¢ Import Shipment Coordination: Coordinate splitting and allocation of import shipments
¢ GRN Administration: Oversee local GRN processing (excluding designated stores) and maintain GRN registers with store sign-off; manage Import F&V GRNs and Kitchen HD/CD GRN/GRTS for relevant stores.
7. Team Leadership & People Management
¢ Team Leadership: Lead, coach and manage the Back Office / COSMO team responsible for reconciliations, stock control, and reporting functions.
¢ Recruitment & Training: Drive recruitment and training for back-office/COSMO team staff and support broader staffing needs for Malawi operations.
¢ Performance Oversight: Set priorities and monitor completion of the team's monthly, weekly and daily reporting obligations, ensuring consistent, accurate and timely delivery to senior management.
Key Result Areas (KRAs)
¢ Accuracy and timeliness of monthly stock, sales and reconciliation reports across all stores.
¢ Reduction in shrinkage, negative stock, and slow-moving/excess stock exposure.
¢ Timely resolution of supplier, GRN, and inter-company reconciliation queries.
¢ On-time delivery of management reporting (P&L, closing stock, expenses, margin reports).
¢ Effective leadership, development and performance of the back-office/COSMO team.
Qualifications & Experience
¢ Bachelor's degree in Commerce, Business Administration, Accounting, or a related field.
¢ 812+ years of progressive experience in retail/FMCG inventory management, stock control, or back-office operations, including experience in a multi-store environment.
¢ Prior exposure to large-format retail chains (India and/or Africa) is highly advantageous.
¢ Strong working knowledge of ERP/retail systems and advanced Microsoft Excel skills (dashboards, pivot analysis, reconciliation modelling).
¢ Demonstrated experience managing supplier reconciliations, shrinkage analysis, and multi-store MIS reporting.
¢ Proven people-management experience, including recruitment, training and performance management of operations teams.
Key Skills & Competencies
¢ Strong analytical and numerical ability with high attention to detail and data accuracy.
¢ Excellent organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple concurrent reporting cycles (daily, weekly, monthly).
¢ Strong stakeholder management able to work across stores, suppliers, finance, and senior management.
¢ Problem-solving orientation, particularly around reconciliation discrepancies and stock variances.
¢ Leadership and team-building capability to manage and develop a back-office operations team.
¢ Clear written and verbal communication skills for management reporting and store correspondence.