Customer Supply Planning Manager

Brakes Food Shop; Ashford; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading foodservice supplier in the UK is seeking a Customer Supply Planning Manager to support supply chain planning and enhance customer relationships. The ideal candidate will have supply chain experience, strong analytical skills, and proficiency in MS Office and ERP systems. This role emphasizes collaboration and proactive change management to drive continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in supply chain or FMCG.
• Experience working collaboratively with stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with customers to gather forecasting insight.
• Manage and communicate supply changes.
• Track wastage risk against bespoke products.

Skills

Analytical mindset

Negotiation

Influencing

Tools

MS Office

SAP

Job description

Brakes have an opportunity for a Customer Supply Planning Manager to join the Product Supply team on a Full Time basis. It will be your responsibility to support customer & business supply chain planning requirements, gathering demand insight & managing customer driven change within the network. You will also establish and develop collaborative relationships with Brakes key customers to facilitate best demand change intelligence gathering that supports best service for customers and lowest risk to Brakes.

You’ll be instrumental in rolling out and embedding tactical plans in line with our ambitious growth strategy and you’ll bring functional expertise to ensure that we deliver, whilst keeping an eye on costs and creating an inclusive team working environment.

Key Accountabilities and Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with customers to gather forecasting insight for key demand events (promotions, allocations, menu changes, category switches events etc). Challenge, validate & analyse the impact & communicate simply and quickly across the Brakes Supply Chain & distribution network, specifically identifying concerns or decisions that need to be made.
• Work with customers to gather insight relating to supply changes (bespoke product switches, bespoke supplier changes etc) and support with managing & communicating that change by working with customers, suppliers and across the Brakes supply chain & distribution network.
• Collaborate with customers to ensure wastage risk against bespoke products is identified & tracked within 6 months of its shelf-life end or with sufficient time to take action to avoid waste.
• Work with customers to ensure that bespoke product discontinuations are cleared from the Brakes Supply Chain & Distribution network within 14 weeks of delist or in line with the customer contract.
• Build the appropriate relationships with internal sales teams to gather insight relating to sales driven change (e.g. customer brand switching or nominated to list line switches)
• Ensure that feedback is provided to customers or sales teams on the quality of their insights
• Live the Brakes values ensuring that change activities and communication with customers, suppliers and across the internal Brakes SC teams meets the criteria outlined in the values handbook.
• Ensure that all customer change activity is understood at least four weeks of the change occurring & is known about / captured on the planning pipeline so that the appropriate resource can be allocated to it
• Ensure that all known change activity is shared across the wider supply chain & that the capturing of product level forecasts are discussed & agreed with the demand team to ensure all information is value adding

About you:

It is desirable that the successful candidate have proven experience in supply chain looking take the next step in their career and join a global organisation or someone who is commercially astute from within a large FMCG, retail or foodservice organisation. You will be proficient in the use of MS Office, in particular Excel and have an analytical mindset and experience of using an ERP system such as SAP. Previous experience working collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders at various levels in a professional capacity combined with strong negotiation and influencing skills are key to being successful in this position. This role is suitable for a positive, self-starter looking to drive change and continuous improvement with a high level of resilience who can think logically outside the box to problem solve.

Additional Information

At Brakes everyone is welcome. We don’t want you to ‘fit our culture’ we want you to help define it and we actively celebrate the unique talents of each and every colleague. We don’t just look at your CV, we’re more focused on who you are and your potential. As part of our values, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture where everyone has a voice, is appreciated and has the same opportunities. We work hard to ensure that everyone feels part of our business, as we care for one another and connect the world through food and trusted partnerships. Our ultimate goal is to ensure that everyone belongs and thrives at Brakes and we recognise that Brakes can only thrive when everyone feels they belong. We'll do everything we can to support you during your application. If you need us to make any adjustments to our recruitment process, speak to our resourcing team who will be happy to support you.

Brakes

Built on a passion for food and feeding the nation, we are the UK’s largest foodservice supplier. Every day Brakes deliver the highest quality fresh and frozen food and ingredients from our nationwide network of distribution centres to some of the nation’s most famous pubs and restaurants, as well as schools, caterers, care homes and hospitals. Our customers depend on us, and our 8,000-strong workforce is dedicated and proud to be part of this vital provision. And we’re growing!