Planning Assistant - Food | Retail | Marks & Spencer

Job description / Role

Overview of the role:

Assistant Planner is responsible for assisting the Planning Manager in OTB management and working closely with all BU teams to ensure buying is in line with the OTB issued.
- Tracking seasonal launch availability working closely with UK, Hubs and WH and highlighting BU teams for any delays.
- Closely monitor the monthly intake plan for rolling 12 months for GBP booking and manage the cash flow.

Managing the stock allocation for 45 stores working closely with the allocation and buying team to ensure stock is allocated at the right time in the right quantity and setting up the business reports through system tools.

What you will do:

Description of Accountability:

Business plan and delivery of key KPIs

• Responsible for extracting data for all business planning.
• Responsible for OTB management and stock flow.
• Accountable for stock management.
• Support planner in markdown management.

Stock allocation

• Work closely with the allocation team to ensure stock is allocated to stores in line with the plan.
• Weekly meetings with the buying team and allocators to highlight any concerns and take actions.

Sale/promotion management

• Support planner on executing the markdown/sale.
• 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 meetings and suggest actions to drive business.
• Analyse shop floor stock by department and store vs ideal and highlight variations to the team for appropriate action.

Required skills to be successful:

• 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.

What equips you for the role:

• Bachelor's degree (Masters preferred).
• 5 years of retail planning experience.
• Advanced Excel & MS Office.
• Verbal communication skills.
• Problem-solving skills.
• Focused.

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.