Operations Manager

Operations Manager — Concept Foods

Location: Edenvale, Gauteng

Reports to: Owner/Managing Director

About Us

Concept Foods is a food and beverage distribution business with 17 years in the South African market. We hold exclusive distribution rights across a portfolio of owned and manufacturer-partnered brands, with national reach through 3PL warehouse partners and export relationships into neighbouring countries. As the business scales, we're building out a stronger leadership team — starting with this role.

The Role

We're looking for an experienced Operations Manager to take ownership of the day-to-day running of the business. This is a hands-on, high-trust role for someone who can bring structure, consistency, and alignment to a growing team — and who has real experience hiring and managing people, not just administrating a workplace. This role is a critical first step in building out our leadership structure, with genuine possibility to grow into a broader General Manager position as the business expands.

What You'll Do

• Own day-to-day operations across the business, ensuring things run smoothly without needing constant owner involvement
• Bring the team together around shared objectives, priorities, and ways of working
• Manage the full employee lifecycle — recruitment, onboarding, performance, and ongoing people management
• Build out basic HR structure and processes where gaps currently exist
• Act as the connective tissue between departments (sales, finance, warehousing) so nothing falls through the cracks
• Support the transition into new company premises, including setting up operational systems and rhythms for a professional office environment

What We're Looking For

• Proven experience running operations for a small-to-mid-sized business (5–20 employees or similar)
• Genuine HR/hiring experience — you've recruited, managed, and developed people before, not just processed paperwork
• Strong organisational instincts — you spot what's missing and fix it without being told
• Comfortable in a business that's still building out its structure; you'll be creating systems, not just following existing ones
• Excellent communicator who can hold a team accountable while keeping morale strong
• Distribution, FMCG, or food/beverage industry experience is a strong plus, but not essential

Why Join Us

You'll have real influence over how this business runs day to day, direct access to ownership, and a clear path to grow into a more senior leadership role as we scale.

Pay: R20 000,00 - R35 000,00 per month

Application Question(s):

• How many people have you directly managed, and in what kind of business
• Walk me through your hands-on hiring experience — how many roles have you personally recruited for, start to finish
• Have you worked in a business with fewer than 20 employees before? What was different about it compared to a larger company
• Describe a time you had to build a process or system from scratch because nothing existed yet.
• What's the largest team conflict or performance issue you've had to personally resolve, and how did you handle it
• What's your notice period, and are you currently employed
• What are your salary expectations for this role

Experience:

• Operations management: 5 years (Required)

Location:

• Edenvale, Gauteng (Preferred)

Willingness to travel:

• 50% (Preferred)

Work Location: In person