Planning Manager UK & Ireland

Build your career at Sazerac! With almost 400 years of rich history, Sazerac Company has thrived as an independent, American family-owned company with operations in the United States and around the world. Since the 2000s, Sazerac has averaged double digit growth every year! Sazerac Company produces and markets the most award-winning bourbons and whiskeys in the world, including Buffalo Trace, Pappy Van Winkle, Eagle Rare, Blanton’s, Traveller, and Sazerac Rye. Additionally, Sazerac owns many popular brands across a range of spirits, including Fireball, Svedka, Wheatley, BuzzBallz, Southern Comfort, Seagram’s V.O., Myers’s, Goldschläger, Parrot Bay, 99 Brand, and Platinum Vodka.

This role offers a fantastic opportunity to join one of the most exciting spirits companies in the World, Sazerac UK is one of the UK’s leading spirit distributors and brand builders representing an award-winning range of Sazerac owned and third-party agency spirit brands. Our enviable, diverse portfolio of award-winning brands include Buzzballz, Buffalo Trace, the UK’s largest American whiskey liqueur brand Southern Comfort, and the number 1 sambuca brand in the UK, Antica Sambuca as well as brands such as Tequila Rose & Fireball.

The Planning Manager leads a team of 3 who work within the UK & Ireland Supply Chain and Operations team based in Kingston Upon Thames, London.  The role is Hybrid working with 2 days per week in the office.  Occasional travel will be required to our office in Dublin Ireland and Lucerne Switzerland.

The team is made up of 1 Demand Planner and 2 Supply Planners.  The Planning team gather demand signals (Atlas planning system), analyse, record and order finished goods from our distilleries across the globe.

The role works alongside the UK & Ireland commercial, manufacturing, logistics, customer service and marketing teams. Ensure the latest finished goods demand plan is accurately reflected in Atlas forecasting system and changes are well analysed, to drive forecast accuracy and optimal inventory.  The team work with cross functional teams to ensure customer demand is met.

Key responsibilities: 

• Demand Planning:
• Lead the execution of improved forecasting through S&OP process.
• Work with demand planner to review key changes in forecasting and identify risks or inaccuracies with additional focus on new product launches. Establish mitigation plans & escalation to global S&OP leadership as appropriate.
• Regularly check for slow moving and obsolete finished good risks, support the demand planner in holding others to account on clearance plans.
• Attend the strategically important forecast review meetings alongside the demand planner.  Ensure demand planner documents all forecast review meetings with individual sales team members, and proactively identifies, communicates, and follows up on significant trends and demand changes to achieve optimum finished goods inventory within the network.
• Oversee the high-level forecast within Atlas planning system and ensure demand planner is close to the detail. 
• Publish monthly forecasting performance metrics.
• Build excellent working relationships with account managers, marketing and finance team members.

• Supply Planning:
• Execute improvements to the supply planning processes, work with Global Supply planning team on established processes.
• Work with the two supply planners to ensure the inventory levels are at an appropriate level, minimising out of stocks whilst keeping the amount of cash tied up in inventory to a suitable level. Drive adherence to Sazerac’s inventory and supply planning ways of working. Implement systems settings and maximise automation to achieve this for the relevant markets.
• Support the supply planners in accurately placing 250 to 400 purchase orders each month, we automate what we can and orders are placed on time with great communication.
• The team quickly identifies potential inventory issues and executes plans to proactively mitigate & escalate.
• Play leading role in executing supply planning activities such as clearance of slow moving and obsolete products with tracking and ensuring agreed plans are delivered. 
• Re-work activities are tracked with supply planners supported where necessary to ensure 3^rd parties carry out tasks on time and on budget.
• Use systems and industry knowledge to optimise delivery time and cost factors within the supply chain. Seek to gain efficiencies wherever possible in order to drive unnecessary cost out of the business. 
• Lead weekly reviews on supply risks and publish. 
• Publish monthly performance metrics on inventory, both by volume and in value.

• Drive for change:
• The Planning Manager is focused on continuous improvement, while the role will involve hand on activities, time is always made to ensure we drive for improvement.
• Willing to learn, have a positive can-do attitude and desire to actively take ownership and drive improvement.   
• Supporting and developing team members to drive performance improvement of themselves and the whole team.
• Optimising processes internally and with sales & marketing teams, we simplify what we do and drive efficiency.   
• Implementing automation where ever possible, the teams time is freed up to invest in value added tasks.

Required Qualifications

• Proven experience as a Planning Manager (Demand & Supply Planning), within FMCG

• Proven experience at management level.

• Strong knowledge of demand planning theory. APICS Supply Chain certification preferred and track record of leading S&OP process.

• Able to lead a team, supporting them, holding them to account, and driving for results.

• Proactive analytical person with great attention to detail.

• Ability to work independently and prioritise tasks in a fast-paced environment.

• Excellent communication, organisational, and multitasking skills, both internally and with customers.

• Forward thinking, able to manage multiple tasks while remaining focused on modernising, automating, and making our processes best in class

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