Demand Planning - Material Planner

Finsbury Food Group; Cardiff; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading speciality bakery manufacturer in the UK is seeking a Materials Planner to oversee the supply of raw materials and packaging for production. You will play a key role in ensuring timely deliveries, maintaining optimal inventory levels, and championing compliance with food safety standards. Ideal candidates have experience in materials planning within the FMCG sector and strong analytical skills. This role offers competitive pay and excellent employee benefits.

Benefits

Enhanced Maternity & Paternity Leave

Enhanced Pension Scheme

Death in Service Benefit

Free Employee Assistance Programme

Retail discounts

Refer a Friend Scheme

Employee Recognition Awards

Extensive Learning & Development opportunities

Qualifications

• Proven experience in a materials planning or supply chain role, ideally within FMCG or food manufacturing.
• Excellent communication and supplier management skills.
• Proactive problem-solver with the ability to adapt to changing priorities.

Responsibilities

• Ensure uninterrupted supply of raw materials and packaging for production.
• Create and maintain accurate material requirements plans based on forecasts.
• Monitor delivery schedules and resolve issues impacting production.

Skills

Materials planning experience

Understanding of MRP systems

Supplier management skills

Analytical skills

Excel proficiency

Tools

SAP

Microsoft Dynamics

Job description

Materials Planner

Location: Memory Lane Cakes

Shift: Weekdays, 08:00 – 16:00

Salary: Competitive

We have an exciting opportunity for a Materials Planner to join our UK Supply Team at Memory Lane Cakes. Finsbury Food Group is a leading speciality bakery manufacturer. We constantly raise quality and efficiency standards and build long‑term relationships within the foodservice channel. Finsbury offers a wide range of bakery products and is a leading frozen supplier into the Foodservice sector.

The Materials Planner will be responsible for ensuring the uninterrupted supply of raw materials and packaging to support our production plans, while maintaining optimal inventory levels. Working closely with procurement, production, warehouse and planning teams, you’ll align material availability with operational demand to keep our bakeries running smoothly and efficiently.

This is what you’ll actually do!

As our Materials Planner, you’ll play a key role in ensuring that every ingredient and packaging component arrives on time to keep our bakeries running seamlessly. You’ll take ownership of creating and maintaining accurate material requirements plans (MRPs) based on production forecasts and actual demand, making sure purchase orders are scheduled and released in line with production needs.

Working closely with suppliers, you’ll monitor delivery schedules to ensure materials arrive on time, proactively resolving any issues that could impact production. You’ll also collaborate with our procurement, warehouse and finance teams to maintain optimal inventory levels – supporting production efficiency while minimising excess or obsolete stock and resolving any discrepancies that arise.

You’ll be the link between suppliers and production, ensuring that materials are available when and where they’re needed to avoid downtime. Alongside this, you’ll prepare insightful reports on material availability, usage and forecast accuracy, helping to drive continuous improvement in our planning processes.

In everything you do, you’ll champion compliance with food safety, traceability and quality standards such as BRC and HACCP, and you’ll contribute to a culture of efficiency and collaboration across the wider supply chain.

Ideally this is you!

• Proven experience in a materials planning or supply chain role, ideally within FMCG or food manufacturing
• Strong understanding of MRP systems and ERP platforms (e.g., SAP, Microsoft Dynamics or equivalent)
• Excellent communication and supplier management skills
• Highly analytical, organised and detail‑oriented
• Proactive problem‑solver with the ability to adapt to changing priorities
• Proficient in Excel and data analysis tools
• Understanding of food safety, allergen control and traceability is a plus

What’s in it for you?

• Enhanced Maternity & Paternity Leave to allow quality time with your new arrival!
• Enhanced Pension Scheme for our employees
• Death in Service Benefit
• Free Employee Assistance Programme (open to colleagues and their families)
• Retail discounts accessible via our Benefits Hub platform!
• Refer a Friend Scheme (up to £300 per referral – T&C’s dependent)
• Employee Recognition Awards, Extensive Learning & Development opportunities (including opportunities for sponsored professional memberships and our own in‑house development course!)
• An opportunity to be part of a fantastic, growing organisation. Head over to our LinkedIn page to find out more!

Our vision is to be the leading speciality bakery group in the UK, and we want the best people in place to achieve this. Our continued success is built entirely on the talented people who work here, so employee development is important to us because everyone is a valued member of the team, and we want every individual to have the skills and capabilities to achieve both your own personal goals and our business goals. We want good people to join our company, to help our company continue to go from strength to strength. If this sounds like you, please get in contact to learn more!