Peter Murphy Email & Phone Number

Morrinsville, Nz

Waikato, New Zealand

As General Manager of Speciality Products for Fonterra, I lead and motivate over 900 staff across sites throughout New Zealand, driving commercial strategy and growth and embedding operational excellence across everything we do. Our products include consumer and paediatric, canned and sachet powders, UHT milks and creams, processed cheese for consumer and retail, bulk pharmaceuticals lactose as well as cultures and probiotics. I lead the strategic direction across these manufacturing sites, ensuring that global quality standards and legislation are achieved and that production levels are targeted for changing markets and demand. I have sat on multiple governance committees for major projects, including in relation to the optimisation of SAP to strengthen the digital value chain, improvements to environmental processes including decarbonisation and energy and water reduction, and implementation of new capital to lift capacity where needed. I have led the programme to achieve General Administration of Customs China (GACC) and State Market Access Requirements (SMAR), and successfully secured certification for six SKUs at Fonterra Canpac to enable ongoing market access to China. I have also managed operating sites that use the P&G IWS best-practice system, completing health checks with EY consultants and visiting the P&G Vietnam best-practice facility, to embed the framework across our New Zealand-based sites. A key member of the Manufacturing Lead Team, I have a lead role in shaping the long-term strategic and capital plans, alongside setting shorter-term goals and creating the strategy asset roadmap. I regularly present at manufacturing roadshows to provide our teams with updates on future strategy, taking everyone on the journey to achieve our production goals.

Waikato, New Zealand

In my role as General Manager for the Central North Island, I oversaw more than 1,150 staff, leading the region through a major period of change to improve efficiencies, optimise spend and maximise market opportunity. During my time here, I led major organisational reviews completed as part of the workforce and milk footprint reviews. I implemented new safety processes to respond to changing legislation that impacted the Tirau site’s designation as a Major Hazard Facility. I also managed the NZM delivery strategy and development of priority order and hourly planning tools to increase DIFOT. Additionally, I represented NZM on multiple committees with the Dairy Workers Union, including participating in national bargaining. I was instrumental in completing the closure of two ethanol plants, with lactose redirected into lactose powder manufacture to achieve high-value return and significant cost savings from the capital upgrades required. This included improving risk management in relation to hazards and critical incidents and ensuring that the teams embraced a culture focused on safety and wellbeing of all staff. I subsequently led the region through the impacts of COVID-19, implementing controls to ensure no significant disruption to processes and stabilising commercial outcomes as a result.

Waikato, New Zealand

Moving into an Operations Manager role overseeing the Waitoa, Morrinsville and Waharoa sites, I managed +400 people in the production of paediatric powder, specialty powders, butter, and animal feed. Instilling a focus on quality, safety and continuous improvement, I delivered multiple initiatives that reduced costs, improved processes and enabled the organisation to target greater market opportunities. During my time here, I led the Waitoa site through the impacts of the MPI review of WPC80, participating in multiple audits with AsureQuality, the Ministry for Primary Industries, and stakeholders in China, to successfully implement the MPI infant formula standard. I also reviewed and implemented full security of sites and food-security controls during the 1080 contamination threat, addressing and removing the risk to our products. To improve team culture and engagement, I created the Frontline Leader Forum, developing supervisory leadership capability and providing career progression opportunities to top talent across the sites. This programme was deployed nationally across all other Fonterra sites.

In my role as Operations Manager for Whareroa, I oversaw the site with +500 FTEs in the production of, cheese, whey and butter, milk treatment and a tanker fleet. I led the whey plant through transformational change, with a significant improvement in quality and safety, driving a sustained level of high performance through the TRACC system and through substantial capital upgrades in new product development, including Clear Whey Protein Isolate (WPI).Leading a culture change, I was able to re-engage people in the safety journey, through improved safety conversations and communications, that resulted in a 20% reduction in total recordable incident frequency rates (TRIFR) in just 12 months. I also implemented new development programmes and leadership forums to develop people capability, increase staff engagement and provide opportunities for career advancement. With a focus on continuous improvement, I implemented a rigorous daily and weekly management system to improve the team’s visibility of substantial losses, enabling them to identify solutions and ultimately delivering $8M savings from budget to forecast.

Hawera New Zealand

Hawera New Zealand

Hawera New Zealand

Paraparaumu New Zealand

Diploma In Competitive Manufacturing Management, Manufacturing Management

Bachelor Of Technology (Btech), Manufacturing Engineering, Hons