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Demand Planner Benelux & Nordics

Location: 

Lebbeke-Wieze, BE, 9280

At Barry Callebaut, we are on a journey to transform the cocoa and chocolate industry. As the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, our actions truly shape the future of our industry. We are a business-to-business company, serving the entire food sector, from the cocoa bean to the finest chocolate product. We are a company with a purpose, we believe in doing well by doing good and reinvesting in the communities we operate. We have a long-standing commitment to sustainability and our goal is to shape a sustainable cocoa and chocolate future. We are headquartered in Zurich, and have more than 12,000 passionate Employees working in more than 40 countries worldwide. We are very proud of who we are and what we do. And of course, we are always looking for talented people to help us have a positive impact on our industry and beyond!

About the Role

 

The goal of the position is to improve the supply chain service & performance by being a key partner in the S&OP cross-functional process. The demand planner will manage, capture, and translate the demand signal into desired supply & service requirements in close collaboration with local & regional commercial, R&D, Finance, and OSCO stakeholders. You will increase visibility and communication and ultimately improve service levels at the lowest cost. Externally you will build a profound understanding of the customer’ need and help drive collaboration and intimacy with key customers.

 

Key Responsibilities Include

 

  • Lead the demand planning process for Benelux & Nordics on Industrial Accounts and/or Regional Accounts and/or Distributors & Artisans.
  • Take overall responsibility for the demand plan figures within the Demand Planning system, ensuring they are representative of the S&OP latest cycle consensus plan (constrain the forecast when needed)
    • Cooperate closely with sales in order to understand and reflect the latest business dynamics in the final forecast
    • Be the commercial’s main challenger when making sure forecasts reflect the most realistic demand outlook
    • Reconcile top-down, and bottom-up demand and gain consensus on new forecast assumptions
    • Intensively work with business partners (Commercial & Financial analysts) on risks and opportunities, communicate them appropriately to SC counterparts (provide context beyond the numbers)
    • Team up with the GBS demand planning team:
      • Give guidance on how and where to enrich the forecast according to the latest forecast review discussions with sales
      • Discuss and understand what is needed to improve forecast accuracy and forecast bias + translate into action plan
    • Keep track of gaps in budgets and be able to explain
    • Own the full local forecast construction process while making sure the monthly forecast cycle deadlines are met:
      • Take the lead in the forecast validation with the Benelux & Nordics managing director
      • Handover  the local forecast and relevant information towards regional demand planning for the regional sign-off
    • Work closely together with Finance on the YTG/YEF, budgeting, and MTP process
  • Coordinate phase in phase-out for key innovation and product launches
  • Collaborate with global supply chain organization on the consolidation of supply risks and early warnings for any supply disruption + communicate proactively to the sales community
  • Contribute to reaching the right inventory health (incl. obsolescence) via active monitoring of stocks at risk and by setting up action plans with local commercial stakeholders
  • Lead & manage the portfolio health assessment and optimization for your portfolio
  • Act as a key contributor to the Value Creation Program identified for key/strategic customers (focus on improving service jointly, avoid cost/create shared value and bring visibility on ESG initiatives.  This will require a close collaboration both internally and externally including frequent customer visits / organizing workshops.

 

About You

 

  • Degree in business administration, supply chain, or related field
  • English fluent
  • +5 years experience in integrated supply chain and ideally planning, and managing a portfolio with high product and channel complexity
  • Experience with ERP systems (SAP, APO, BW reporting, PowerBi) is a plus
  • Good knowledge of Excel and Powerpoint
  • Able to work in virtual teams and cross-functional teams.  Ability to balance day-to-day detail with long-term helicopter view.
  • Strong networking, stakeholder, and influencing skills
  • Positive communicator, easily approachable for all levels in the organization, confident to work with senior leadership
  • Solid analytical skills with the ability to dig into raw data and interpret them for larger audiences
  • Self-starter, entrepreneurial, and able to manage complex analytical projects
  • Positive and agile mindset, looking for continuous improvement and embracing change.
  • Methodical and well-organized
  • Strong commercial acumen

At Barry Callebaut, we are committed to Diversity & Inclusion. United by our strong values, we thrive on the diversity of who we are, where we come from, what we’ve experienced and how we think. We are committed to nurturing an inclusive environment where people can truly be themselves, grow to their full potential and feel they belong. #oneBC - Diverse People, Sustainable Growth.

If you want to learn more about Barry Callebaut, please find further information here.

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