About Us
Our Vision is to help companies all across the UK realise the true value of their inventory profile.
Our Goal is to help your business optimise and manage your inventory in a controlled and sustainable manner.
Our Story
At Libero we believe we have an unrivalled passion for inventory. This passion was ignited when our founders, James and Owen, met whilst working together as Production Planners for Honeywell between 2010 and 2013. A world class manufacturer, Honeywell deployed HOS (Honeywell Operating System, inspired by the Toyota Production System) to raise standards and ensure consistency of approach across its 200+ sites.
A key pillar of HOS was an aggressive focus on inventory reduction, which was driven from the top by CEO Dave Cote. Dave firmly believed that reducing inventory reduced costs and importantly freed up cash to invest, a philosophy which really resonated with us. We became heavily involved in inventory reporting and various reduction projects, eventually becoming inventory champions for our site. Working together forged an excellent professional relationship and a close friendship, and we often talked about one how we’d one day set up our own business.
Owen moved on from Honeywell in 2013 and James followed in 2014. However, our close friendship and almost telepathic working relationship meant the dream of setting up together was never far from our thoughts. In 2015 we formed a LTD company and regularly met to formulate plans for going live, but for many years life got in the way of making our dream happen. However in 2024 when we took the plunge and Libero became reality.
Libero’s goal is simple – to help your business reduce inventory in a controlled and sustainable manner, enabling you to hold more of what you do need and less of what you don’t. OTIF will improve, backorder will reduce, SLOBs will be minimised and cash will increase. So if you want to improve your inventory position LET’S TALK!
Meet the Libero team……
James Smith
After graduating with a 2.1 in Business Management from the University of Manchester in 2007, James embarked on an extensive 17-year journey in manufacturing, starting out as a Materials Planner for Ifor Williams Trailers. He then moved into food, taking up a role as Project Manager for Roberts of Port Dinorwic, where he managed the design and roll out of a stock traceability system. After completing this project he became Production Systems Manager for Engineering firm Denis Ferranti Group, managing the Group’s ERP system and production planning. A role as Production Planner at Honeywell followed, where James developed his passion for inventory after being appointed site inventory champion.
Roles as Senior Production Planner at rivet manufacturer Henrob and Operations Project Manager at fibreoptic manufacturer CommScope followed, where James improved planning processes and honed his ERP knowledge further. After taking redundancy from CommScope, James joined leading wet wipe manufacturer Nice-Pak, initially as S&OP Manager before being promoted to Group Planning & Inventory Manager. In this role James revolutionised Nice-Pak’s S&OP processes and embedded an inventory reduction and optimisation culture, playing a key role in reducing inventory from £22M to £16M. Latterly, James became Group Demand Planning Manager at Advanced Medical Solutions where he oversaw the demand plan for £130M+ sales across multiple sites and territories, before embarking on his Libero adventure.
This varied experience across roles and industries gives James an unrivalled insight into the challenges faced by manufactures of all shapes and sizes, and the critical, yet often misunderstood and overlooked role that effective inventory management plays in business success. One thing he has learned over the years is that whilst every firm is unique, the underlying principles of inventory management remain the same.
A father of boys aged 10 and 12, when he’s not obsessing over inventory and working on creative solutions to reduce and optimise it, you’ll most likely find James either watching his boys play football or coaching Conwy Borough Under 12’s, and perhaps occasionally, if he fancies punishing himself, watching Manchester United.