Demand Planner

Overview

At Bazooka the Demand Planner requires prior experience in Demand Planning and S&OP/IBP process and broad experience/understanding of supply planning and materials planning.

We are looking for an entrepreneurial and energetic candidate, capable of flexing in both strategic and tactical activities, with a proven ability to demonstrate progress in a dynamic environment.  This role interacts daily with business leaders in Marketing, Sales, Finance, Supply Chain, Procurement and key external partners to drive business objectives.

Our portfolio creates an exciting and critically important role for a creative and solutions-oriented candidate to make a significant difference of our portfolio.  Opportunity to operate at both a strategic and tactical level, to identify, align and develop partnerships, identify new and breakthrough solutions that continue to lead the category

Responsibilities

Lead Demand Forecast & Planning:

• Manage all aspects of brand level and key customer level demand forecasting for new and baseline skus.  Includes review of customer demand, consumption trends, new/lost business, change in market trends, and risks and opportunities.
• Develop and analyze consumption to shipment model for total US, LATAM and Canadian markets as well as key customers.
• Lead monthly Demand Reviews with sales & marketing team to evaluate (gain consensus around) forecasts, promotions, forecast accuracy and impact of production status, proactively identify, and communicate risks/opportunities and drive their resolution.
• Analyze Nielsen/IRI monthly data and shipments by customer, to discuss and recommend sales forecast with Sales, Marketing and Finance, and develop key insights to facilitate a robust demand review.
• Serve as the communication leader between the Operations, Marketing and Finance teams on forecasting issues, facilitating meetings to reconcile demand/supply challenges.
• Understand the leading demand planning trends in the industry and bring new ideas to adapt and overhaul the current process to improve the effectivity and accuracy.
• Maintain SKU-level forecasts on a rolling monthly and quarterly basis at the key customer level for new and existing portfolio.
• Increase demand forecasting accuracy by removing forecast bias, utilizing robust analytics, and reviewing brand and market trends.
• Drive forecast accuracy and bias KPI’s to meet annual targets.
• Monitor performance vs. the forecast throughout the month identifying any key shifts or trends.
• Analyze forecast variation/deviation with the goal to minimize service issues and prevent the build of excess & obsolete inventory.
• Support the development and implementation of new systems, processes, models, and KPI performance reporting tools.
• Manage the product range inclusive of product life cycle.
• Analyze and interpret SKU effectiveness and efficiency, guide/drive SKU rationalization.
• Partner with key parties to gather forecast inputs based on functional expertise.
• Influence and drive alignment with Marketing, Sales, Customers and Finance to create new product launch forecasts.
• Merge business knowledge and expertise with statistical models to enhance the forecast while integrating input from Sales, Marketing, and other key stakeholders.
• Drive best-in-class service through demand planning excellence, sharing ownership of company service level performance

Assist S&OP/IBP process

• Lead a series of routine monthly consensus planning meetings to ensure that sales trends, consumption insights and consumer promotion strategies are triangulated to deliver a high-quality business forecast-, short- and long-term supply plan and the resulting MRP.
• Prepare agendas, reports, minutes and action item follow ups to share with cross functional teams.
• Lead reviews with Sales, Marketing and Finance to evaluate forecasts, consumption, promotions, shipments and customer inventory levels.
• Assist Operations in the S&OP process to review KPI performance, capacity saturation, growth opportunities and trends, network risks, plans for at-risk inventory as well as new business/SKU offering inventory status. Work closely with supply and procurement management drive S&OP process.
• Be a key partner in the annual sales planning process. Lead the demand function in the annual budgeting process and partner with Sales, Marketing and Finance ensuring that key deliverables and deadlines are met to deliver a successful budget.

Qualifications

• B.A. or B.S. degree (Bachelor’s Degree in Business or related experience in the field preferred)
• Minimum 4 years of experience in Demand Planning and S&OP experience in a CPG company
• Lead and/or supported S&OP Process
• Strong working knowledge of Consumption Data (Nielsen, IRI, etc.)
• Advanced skills with MS Office required, intermediate MS Excel required, advanced Excel helpful
• Working knowledge of quantitative methods to analyze situations and solve business problems
• Develop excel based tools to facilitate the procurement roles (comfortable building and maintaining excel-based tools to support cross-functional teams)
• Excellent analytical, written and verbal communication. (Strong collaboration and written / verbal communication skills are required, particularly teams across multiple BU's. Clear and concise communication with multiple levels of management is essential.)
• Must be detail oriented, self-starter, working independently, and comfortable taking initiative, as well as capable driving and delivering high quality results on a sustainable basis.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively influence both internal and external customers/relationships
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills: Comfort in analyzing/slicing data in various manners to gather insights
• Ability to organize work and manage/lead multiple projects and priorities while meeting deadlines
• Excellent customer service / support skills, ability to work well under pressure, professional demeanor and strong written and oral communication skills
• Leadership: Through insights and business mastery, must be able to influence direction and decision-making as it relates to Consensus / S&OP processes.
• Business Knowledge: Experience in packaged goods within the retail and/or B2B markets preferred.
• Collaboration: Must have strong collaboration skills to partner internally and externally to resolve issues and identify opportunities.

WHAT IS BAZOOKA CANDY BRANDS?

Bazooka Candy Brands manufactures and markets the popular lollipop brands Ring Pops, Push Pops, Baby Bottle Pops and other candy and gum products, including the iconic Bazooka Bubble Gum.

The policy of Bazooka is to provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all applicants for employment and all employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sex stereotyping, pregnancy, sexual and reproductive health choices gender, gender identity or expression, the status of being transgender, gender stereotyping, sexual orientation, status as a victim of domestic violence, national origin, ancestry, age, mental or physical disability, genetic information, medical condition, marital status, military or veterans status, citizenship status, or any other classification protected by applicable federal, state, or local law and to affirmatively seek to advance the principles of equal employment opportunity.