Plant Manager

Food Plant Manager – Union City, CA

IRCA is a prominent international provider of semi‑finished ingredients for the bakery, pastry, and gelato markets. They cater to independent producers as well as large food manufacturers, including consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies. The company's core product offerings consist of chocolate, chocolate decorations, creams, pastry mixes, gelato ingredients, and various other bakery and pastry ingredients.

Headquartered in Italy, IRCA was acquired by Advent International, a global private equity firm, in July 2022. The company has demonstrated a strong history of growth over the past decade. As part of its growth strategy, IRCA made two bolt‑on acquisitions in 2022. They acquired Cesarin, a provider of candied fruits, and Anastasi, a supplier of pistachio ingredients. These acquisitions expanded IRCA's product portfolio and market reach.

More recently, IRCA acquired the leading manufacturer of sweet and cereal products in Europe and the US. The target company focuses on high‑value specialty ingredients for the Food Manufacturers segment. Their product range includes sweet particulates, chocolate confections, baked inclusions, variegates, and fruit purées. This deal, successfully completed in March of 2023, is a transformative move for IRCA, establishing them as a global leader in the semi‑finished ingredients industry.

With this acquisition, IRCA has a combined revenue of €1 billion in 2023 and a presence in 22 manufacturing facilities across Europe, the US, and Vietnam. This expanded manufacturing footprint and diversified product portfolio positions IRCA as a key player in the market, serving a wide range of customers in the bakery, pastry, and gelato sectors, as well as food manufacturers.

The Plant Manager is accountable for leading the overall operations at our plant located in Union City, CA. The Plant Manager will build capability throughout the plant team to ensure the sustainable performance and growth of the site through capacity, resource, and talent planning in close partnership with relevant functional leaders. The Plant Manager will ensure strong collaboration with our various leaders throughout Irca Group and our commercial colleagues to connect with our overall manufacturing planning and performance. The Plant Manager will work to ensure that our plant teams are clear on our vision and our purpose, including clearly understanding how their roles and collective plant performance help contribute to us being our customers’ most valued partner.

Key Responsibilities

• Development of plant strategy, underpinned by a master schedule in line with growth plans and relevant manufacturing strategy
• Lead a performance management and measurement discipline across the plant, with focused analysis of plan performance data, recognizing individual/team achievements, setting clear plans to address performance gaps, understanding trends and proactively identifying opportunities for improvement
• Working with our manufacturing and broader functional leadership to ensure a connected view of plant priorities and connectivity to our EUM/commercial strategy, in line with customer segmentation criteria – ensuring a clear representation of plant perspectives, ideas and considerations needed to inform best decision making for the company
• Work with manufacturing leadership to ensure that all plants are sharing best practice across the plant network, participating in our Plant Leadership community
• Driving proactive resolution for areas that do/could potentially impact plant performance through partnering with the relevant function in IO (QSHE, Engineering, Supply Chain, Procurement)
• Leading out on improvement of plant Organizational Health targets (including active & clearly communicated engagement plans across selected areas of priority)
• Lead plant level productivity across areas of asset management, performance, and efficiencies in line with agreed business terms
• Lead and embed a CI mindset across the plant, actively seeking improvements and efficiency of operations, demonstrating an ability and team encouragement to identify and drive continuous improvement initiatives
• Lead key change initiatives across the plant (and connect to plant master schedule), with required functional support e.g., automation, digital, sustainability etc.
• Play an active part in New Product Development (NPD) processes in line with agreed ways of working, partnering with RDA and commercial as required to bring clarity to implications e.g., cost, service levels, OTIF etc.

Professional Skills & Education

• 8+ years of progressive experience in food manufacturing and plant operations at a leadership level
• BA/BS/MS in Engineering, Business, Food Science preferred
• Demonstrated success as a change agent & developing/implementing continuous improvement initiatives and accountability programs
• Strong hands‑on leader who leads by example and actively engages in day‑to‑day operational challenges.
• Demonstrated success assessing, developing, and retaining top talent
• Proven ability to drive process improvements, adhere to budgets, and maintain regulatory compliance
• Financial analysis acumen and experience maintaining budgets or capital spend
• Ability to deliver business result
• Fluent in verbal and written English required. Ability to verbally communicate in Spanish is required.
• Proven ability to lead direct and indirect reports
• Strategic Thinking, Managing Change, Critical Thinking, Continuous Cost Focus, Technical Expertise, Influence and Delivery of Sustainable Results
• Develop strong working relationships with colleagues across various departments, including financial, supply chain, sales and commercial entities, and seniority level leaders
• Strong People leadership skills
• Ability to coach and develop the workforce
• Multi‑tasking, organizational and time management expertise

$200,000 - $220,000 a year

Why Join Us

Irca Group offers career growth opportunities as well as competitive compensation and benefits: Medical, Dental, & Vision, 401(k) matching, Paid Vacation, and Holidays, Employee Education Tuition Reimbursement Program.