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We caught up with Vance Fairman-Smith, Group Supply Chain Director, to chat about all things supply chain, his Greene King career so far, and some of the big priorities for supply chain this year…

Vance, can you tell us a little about yourself…

I have been with the business for 15 years, originally joining Punch so have seen number of changes over the years.

I am married to Vicky, who also works for Greene King and have three children, two boys Lachlan 23 a pilot, Luca 21 a truck technician and Emmie 11 who is the selfappointed boss of the family.

I love to travel, any type of holiday/break suits whether it’s the beach or walking in the countryside as long as includes a pub visit.

I am a West Ham fan and love a great day out at the horse racing. I love great food and sharing these social occasions with family and friends.

A passion I have had for a while now is everything about the environment, especially and more importantly now, biodiversity and nature protection. In my role at Greene king this has allowed me to pursue these passions whether it be recycling, tub2pub, energy reduction, packaging reduction or even an odd roof top garden.

Can you tell us a bit more about Group Supply Chain as a function?

New Group supply chain is a exciting place to be, the scale and breadth is considerable, we have nearly 1000 team members, 290 vehicles and over 7500 delivery locations, consolidating deliveries from hundreds of suppliers and engaging with thousands of pubs every day.

Our ambition is to provide a secure dedicated Supply Chain, offering industry leading service standards at the best cost possible. With an aim to drive an added value proposition whether it be process improvements, additional services or using technology. We have several exciting projects underway; the new £20m plus investment in Middleton that opens with drinks first this year then food in 2026, new vehicles coming with improved technology and trials on added value services like glass recycling and snacks/GNFR (goods not for resale) to Pub Partners and Free Trade customers.

This all must be underpinned by ensuring we have a working environment that our team members find safe and inclusive to work, where everyone’s view is valued and listened to.

What does your role as Group Supply Chain Director entail?

My role is a balance of many objectives making sure we are achieving both our strategic goals but also our day-to-day service levels, achieving cost efficiency without stifling innovation, long term engagement and minimising our impact on our environment.

What are some of the big priorities for Group Supply Chain this year?

We have several initiatives for this year and in the longer-term pipeline.

Firstly, the successful opening of Middleton depot, to raise the levels of team engagement, making sure safety is at the forefront of everyone minds, improve our asset utilisation and then look to land added value projects that everyone can support, glass recycling and snacks/GNFR. We are also looking to develop a technology solution to assist pub ordering and to understand true guest dish availability.

Hopefully the teams will see improved engagement and information sharing but also that we welcome everyone’s views and involvement in projects.

My ambition is for Greene King to be seen as having the best industry leading supply chain in hospitality recognised by our competitors and for this to translate in our dartboard performance sectors. It’s not lost on me that it’s the people that make this business though so this will only be possible with engagement from our teams.