Emirati National Planner | Retail | Marks & Spencer

Job description / Role

Overview of the role

The planner is responsible for sales planning by market, BU by month and ensuring all the key business KPIs of sales, cash margin, markdown cost, and closing stock are achieved. He/She controls space and OTB planning by BU for the entire MENA business.

What you will do:

Description of Accountability:

• Business plan and delivery of key KPIs:
  • Responsible for planning annual business plan by market and BU.
  • Deliver weekly WSSI for C&H, food, and total business.
  • Control the OTB for business, C&H, and food.
  • Support on space planning.
  • Support senior merchandiser in markdown management.
• Sales and OTB planning:
  • Work closely with finance and operation team to plan accurate annual sales budgeting by month and market.
  • Work closely with buying team to plan accurate sales by week and BU.
  • Forecast sales by day for the total business.
  • Control OTB spend for C&H and food by season.
  • Deliver weekly WSSI by forecasting accurate sales, markdown, and intake based on the seasonal OTB spend and UK delivery schedule (EDI track).
• Space management:
  • Plan appropriate space by BU and store for every season.
  • Work closely with buying team and operation team for accurate densities & MCO by categories.
  • Propose actions based on sales and space productivity by category and store.
  • Plan ideal stock by season, store, and department.
• Sale/promotion management:
  • Deliver end-to-end process on markdown strategy.
  • Decide right discount by market based on sell-through.
  • Ensure municipality permission list submitted on time as per market requirements for sale and promotion application.
  • Ensure system prices are updated on all sale and promotion products.
• Trade:
  • Ensure weekly trade reports are delivered on time.
  • Ensure weekly seasonal fulfilment/availability is tracked and highlighted for any concern or delays with UK.
  • Attend weekly team meeting and suggest actions to drive business.
  • Analyse shop floor stock by department and store vs ideal and highlight to team for appropriate action.

Required skills to be successful:

• Advanced computer skills (MS Office packages).
• Excellent communication skills.
• Good command of English language.
• Good command of Arabic language.
• Focus on continuous improvement of existing operations.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment.

What equips you for the role:

• Bachelor's degree with minimum 5 years' experience in planning.
• Able to handle complexity.
• Excellent planning and organizing skills.
• Attention to detail.
• Highly numerate.
• Good communicator.
• Optimistic attitude.
• Works at pace with an impatience to get things done.
• Cultural awareness.
• Graduate or graduate calibre.
• Good working knowledge of Excel.
• Knowledge of SAP an additional advantage.

We're here to provide excellent service but a little help from you can ensure a five-star candidate experience from start to finish.

Before you click "apply": please read the job description carefully to ensure you can confidently demonstrate why this opportunity is right for you and take the time to put together a well-crafted and personalised CV to further boost your visibility. Our global talent acquisition team members are all assigned to specific businesses to ensure that we make the best matches between talent and opportunities. We not only consider the requisite compatibility of skills and behaviours, but also how candidates align with our values of respect, integrity, collaboration, and excellence.

As part of our candidate experience promise, we also want to make ourselves available to you throughout the application process. We make every effort to review and respond to every application.

About the Company

Established in the 1930's, the Al-Futtaim Group initially operated as a trading enterprise. Rapid development throughout the 1940's and 50's saw it establish itself regionally as an integrated commercial, industrial and services organisation, positioning itself one of the leading business houses in the lower Gulf region. Today, it operates collectively over 40 companies bearing the Al-Futtaim name, dominates many market segments in the UAE, and has expanded its sphere of operation to include Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Egypt.

The Group comprises a diverse range of strategically positioned operating subsidiaries and associate companies, structured to give the Al-Futtaim Group the flexibility and versatility to keep ahead of local competition while keeping pace with the ever-evolving global business scenario. The Groups continued investment in world-class systems technology is clear evidence of its commitment to maintain leading edge performance and service delivery.

The success of the Al-Futtaim Group can be attributed to a business approach that combines the ability to change with the traditional values of integrity, service and social responsibility that define its core business philosophy. This, linked with the Groups belief in decentralisation, gives the heads of the operating companies a high degree of functional autonomy and authority, providing the Group with essential flexibility, and individual employees a clearly defined work culture and sense of responsibility.