Building a long term partnership with SunRice

SunRice, the consumer brand and trading name of Ricegrowers Limited, is one of Australia’s largest branded food exporters, listed on the ASX with revenues exceeding $1 billion.

Since 2017, we have been a key recruitment partner for SunRice, supplying talent across their SunRice, CopRice, and Riviana Foods divisions in Sydney, Melbourne, and their regional manufacturing locations. Our exclusive partnership has played a critical role in building high-performing teams across multiple business functions.

THE CHALLENGE:

SunRice required recruitment support across executive, senior leadership, and specialist roles, spanning diverse functions such as Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, Finance, Procurement, and Engineering (R&D).

The challenges included:

• Conducting confidential executive searches for high-impact leadership roles.
• Identifying talent from small, niche candidate pools, particularly within the FMCG and retail sectors.
• Sourcing candidates for roles with global remits and local manufacturing requirements, requiring both technical expertise and cultural alignment with SunRice’s values.

Additionally, the fast-paced nature of their industry demanded a recruitment partner who could move swiftly without compromising on candidate quality.

OUR APPROACH:

Our partnership with SunRice is built on a deep understanding of their business, values, and Employee Value Proposition (EVP). As their exclusive recruitment partner, we invested time to understand the nuances of their company culture and the competencies required for success in their fast-moving environment.

Leveraging our specialist FMCG and retail networks, we conducted targeted searches, combining:

• Market mapping and talent pooling for senior and niche roles.
• Proactive engagement with passive candidates from our FMCG and supply chain communities, nurtured over years.
• Use of confidential search strategies for sensitive leadership appointments.
• Real-time market feedback to refine SunRice’s EVP and ensure it resonated with the talent market.

By aligning our search approach with SunRice’s growth objectives, we successfully delivered candidates with not only the right technical capabilities but also the entrepreneurial mindset to thrive in SunRice’s dynamic environment.

RESULTS:

The team recruited SunRice’s most critical senior and specialist leaders across multiple divisions.
With broad functional coverage, we successfully placed candidates across diverse business functions, including:

• Global Head of Sales
• Global Head of Supply Chain
• Head of Retail Sales, ANZ
• Head of Innovation
• Head of Insights
• Head of Procurement
• Head of Research & Development
• Commercial Finance Manager
• Production Manager

We created a long term impact and a trusted partnership that has contributed to SunRice’s ability to scale teams for both global and local roles. Our relationship evolved into an exclusive recruitment partnership, reflecting SunRice’s confidence in our ability to deliver exceptional talent aligned with their values and business goals.

CLIENT TESTIMONIAL:

"As an organisation, we have been very happy with the quality of service and communication from all those we work with at Six Degrees Executive. Several of our assignments have required either a confidential search or a search into a very small/niche pool of candidates, and we can trust Six Degrees to represent our business and the opportunities within, accurately to the right audience.

Where there have been challenges on assignments, they have been quickly resolved through upfront, two-way conversation.

I have no hesitation in recommending the team at Six Degrees to any client, particularly one who is seeking a specialist recruitment provider who understands the nuances of the FMCG/retail industry and understands the candidate dynamics within."

- Head of Talent for SunRice

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