Sr Demand Planning Analyst

Business Unit Overview

Headquartered in Lakeville, Minn., Post Consumer Brands, a business unit of Post Holdings, Inc., is dedicated to providing people and their pets with delicious food choices for every taste and budget. The company's portfolio includes beloved brands such as Honey Bunches of Oats, PEBBLES, Grape-Nuts and Malt-O-Meal cereal, and Peter Pan peanut butter, as well as Rachael Ray Nutrish, Kibbles 'n Bits and 9Lives dog and cat food. As a company committed to high standards of quality and to our values, we are driven by one idea: To make lives better by making delicious food accessible for all. For more information about our brands, visit www.postconsumerbrands.com and follow us on LinkedIn for the latest news.

Brand

It's an exciting time in pet food! Post Holdings, Inc., recently announced an agreement to acquire Perfection Pet Foods, a leading manufacturer of private label and co-manufactured pet food and baked treats. The transaction is anticipated to close by the end of the calendar year in 2023. This role is part of the Perfection Pet Foods team of 250+ employees who will soon join the Post family to help grow the pet food business.

Location Description

Post Consumer Brands corporate headquarters in Lakeville, Minn. is about 20 miles south of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Lakeville has all the benefits of smaller town living with access to everything a large metropolitan area has to offer. Join more than 400 team members collaborating on the two-building campus to help put breakfast on the tables of millions of consumers in North America.

Responsibilities

Overview

The Demand Planner, Private Label/Co-Manufacturing is responsible for owning the demand planning process for Post Consumer Brands' Private Label and Co-Manufactured Pet Business. This function will create item sales forecasts through the use of historical data, customer forecasts, customer collaboration and sales team interaction. The developed forecasts will drive financial budgeting, production planning, product deployment and other operational and financial decisions. Strong business acumen and a strong working knowledge of supply and demand planning is a must. This position must be able to identify opportunities for improving on the status quo. Providing ideas for improvement and leading the execution of those ideas to drive value for the organization.

Responsibilities and Accountabilities

• Own the demand planning process for Post Consumer Brands' Private Label and Co-Manufacturing business

• Create item/DC level forecasts for designated items within the Post Consumer Brands portfolio, that achieve targeted MAPE and Bias metrics

• Support the monthly Demand Review as part of the broader Sales and Operations Process (S&OP)

• Provide comparisons of current forecasts to previous forecasts and budget

• Highlight key drivers behind forecast variances and change drivers

• Maintain working list of demand risks and opportunities

• Partner with customers to accurately forecast demand changes associated with promotions, distribution changes, item adds/deletes and other demand drivers

• Schedule and lead monthly demand planning meetings with key customers as needed

• Reconcile internal statistical forecasting methods with customer forecasts and order trends to develop accurate forecasts

• Coordinate cross-functional research activities to reconcile significant variances and refine future forecasts as needed

• Communicate regularly with internal and external stakeholders to continuously drive forecast improvements

• Address demand related inquiries and issues in a timely manner

• Conduct quantitative analysis of POS performance where we have this data available to understand in stocks, velocity trends, distribution and price point information that will inform future forecasts

• Utilize various customer software systems/portals to access key demand/inventory information for use in forecast generation

Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain, Mathematics, Statistics or related field is required
• APICS, IBF or other relevant Demand Planning certifications are preferred.

Experience:

• 5-10 years Demand Planning/Supply Chain Management experience within the CPG industry preferred

• Understanding of Walmart, HEB, Target and Chewy Supply Chains is a plus

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Other Characteristics:

• Advanced proficiency in MS Office Suite, with an emphasis on Excel

• Strong technical skillset preferred in one or more of the major statistical forecast software packages (Logility, Kinaxis, SAP, APO, Manugistics, Demantra).

• Self Motivated, proactive and able to work independently and as part of a team

• Systemic problem solver; implementing solutions to solve root cause problems

• Strong time management skills

• Excellent written, oral, communications, negotiation and facilitation skills.

• Analytical/Quantitative mindset

• Strong Organizational skills