The Opportunity

We are looking for a highly analytical, collaborative, and pro-active Demand Planner to join our Travel Retail Supply Chain team, specifically focusing on our significant luxury division Business Units (BU) & Brands.

This pivotal role is responsible for the sales forecast process and driving the business growth of our iconic brands in a truly global context alongside with Marketing, Finance and Sales team while playing a critical part in ensuring product availability and optimizing inventory.

Key Responsibilities

As a Demand Planner for a significant Business Unit and brands in the Travel Retail business, you will:

1. Develop and Maintain Accurate Demand Forecasts:

• Analyze Sell-in, Sell-out and Stock-in-Trade to identify trends in demand, potential risk or opportunity and corresponding actions plan.
• Coordinate with sales, marketing and finance on building demand forecast and ensure forecasting process is being followed by all relevant parties.
• Ensure the sales forecast consistency, through the building of a consensus between the commercial forecasts, the financial trend and the sales history.
• Manage forecast PBI/FM tools
• Contribute to budget and trend construction. 

2. Drive Collaboration and Consensus:

• Lead monthly forecast review meetings with Sales, Marketing, Finance, and the BU Brand team to achieve a collaborative consensus forecast.
• Challenge and consolidate the promotions, launches and POS material sales forecasts built by the Sales and Marketing teams

• Act as a key interface between commercial teams and the wider supply chain, ensuring forecast accuracy reflects commercial realities and operational capabilities.

3. Enhance the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) Process:

• Actively contribute to the monthly S&OP cycle by providing robust demand plans, highlighting key assumptions, risks, and opportunities for Business Unit.
• Prepare and present detailed forecast analyses and recommendations to support strategic decision-making.

4. Optimize Inventory and Service Levels:

• Collaborate with Supply Planning teams to translate demand forecasts into optimal inventory strategies, ensuring high service levels while minimizing excess stock and obsolescence across the Brand categories – Skincare, Makeup, Fragrances, etc.
• Monitor product lifecycle (introduction, growth, maturity, decline) and adjust forecasts to manage phase-in/phase-out effectively.
• Analyze and monitor Excess and Obsoletes to drive Inventory Quality.
• Prepare for co-pack planning.

5. Analyze Performance and Drive Continuous Improvement:

• Regularly track and analyze forecast accuracy, bias, and forecast error.
• Identify root causes of forecast deviations and implement corrective actions and process improvements to enhance overall forecast reliability (including baselines, launches, promotion)

6. Transversal responsibilities: The role includes transversal responsibilities such as process improvements and projects.

Key Skills & Qualifications

• Experience:

• Minimum 4-6  years of progressive experiences in Demand Planning, preferably at FMCGs with multiple SKU’s.

• Strong Analytical & Technical Skills:

• Proficiency in advanced Excel (pivot tables, VLOOKUP, complex formulas) is essential.

• Hands-on experience with SAP, Futurmaster is a plus.

• Communication & Collaboration Skills:

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex information to diverse audiences.
• Strong influencing and negotiation skills, capable of building consensus among cross-functional teams.
• Ability to present data and insights in a clear, concise, and compelling manner.

• Problem-Solving & Adaptability:

• Proactive, solution-oriented mindset with the ability to identify issues, analyze root causes, and implement effective solutions.
• Highly adaptable and comfortable working under pressure in a dynamic, fast-paced, and international environment.
• Continuous improvement mindset.

• Organizational:

• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and able to manage multiple priorities and deadlines effectively.

• Education:

• University graduated or above, preferable in Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Business or related discipline

• Language:

• Fluency in English is essential