Alex Arvanitis
Head of Transformation, Coca-Cola Amatil
A veteran of the supply chain, Alex Arvanitis first entered the industry 25 years ago. Alex studied food science at the University of New South Wales and is currently the Head of Transformation for Supply Chain at Coca-Cola Amatil. Her experience spans the globe.
Alex began her career with a position in the meat industry as a microbiologist. The job involved working with butchers and Alex was the only female amongst 500. She left the meat industry behind to start a ten-year career with Streets Ice Cream at Unilever.
Her decade in the ice-cream industry spanned several positions and multiple countries. Alex’s career took her to London, France, Amsterdam, Beijing, Bangkok, Singapore and USA. She moved through a variety of roles including Quality Assurance Manager and TPM (Total Production Manager) Manager all the while being involved in continuous improvement, including completing her Masters with the Japanese Institute of Plant Maintenance. She is a qualified Level 2 TPM instructor and a Black Belt in Lean/Six Sigma.
Alex started work with Coca-Cola Amatil in 2004 and she has loved every minute of it. She started in a role designed to find spring water, the kind you can find in Mt. Franklin and Pump bottles. ‘I found the water using divining rods,’ she jokes. Since then she has climbed the ladder and worked as both a Technical Manager, Operational Excellence Manager and Manufacturing Manager. She has even been surprised by the company when she was offered the position of Logistics Manager, a role that she hadn’t even applied for. This role pushed her in the direction of the companies’ distribution channels.
Coca-Cola Amatil has 400 trucks on the road in NSW daily and as the logistics manager, Alex had to oversee this process. She moved from Logistics Manager to a National Quality Assurance Manager before settling into her role as Head of Transformation. For three years Alex has been Head of Transformation and in this role, she has been dedicated to taking 100 million dollars of cost out of the Coca-Cola Amatil business.
Alex has loved her experience within the supply chain industry and has described her time in distribution as amazing and career changing. Her experience shows some of the amazing positions that are available within the supply chain.