Demand Planner

Founded in Japan in 1887, Kao is passionate about making a difference in people's lives with our high-quality products and services to create a Kirei Life for all - a beautiful life that respects the needs of our consumers and customers as well as the planet. We never compromise on quality and craft our products with care for the consumer and the environment. As a company driven by purpose and strong corporate values, we pride ourselves on being listed among the World's Most Ethical Companies for 19 consecutive years. Our corporate philosophy, the Kao Way, guides us in everything we do - acting with integrity, courageously driving innovation and treating each other with trust and respect.

The role: You will work closely with cross-functional teams in Molton Brown, including Sales, Marketing, Production, and wider Supply Chain to analyse historical data, assess market trends, and develop demand forecasts to support our sales and inventory management strategies.

What you will do:

• Own, develop and drive Molton Brown Demand Planning 12-month forecasts utilising KAO forecasting system & tools.
• Work with the Molton Brown Commercial teams regionally to gather all information regarding product demands for their customers to establish an internal forecast that reflects actuals as closely as possible, e.g. promotion planning input, NPD volumes validation.
• Continuously improve forecasting accuracy by analysing the demands vs actual sales & proposing corrective actions for both products forecast and process optimization.
• Deliver monthly reports on forecast deviation and proposals on improvements on demand planning parameters to reach ultimately the best practice benchmark.
• Be the key demand planning contact for sales and marketing team for stock availability and allocation queries and any other ad-hoc support required.
• Provide analysis of write-off risks and disposal costs for Finished Goods, Components & raw materials to identify slow movers and enable short-term sales and marketing activities to minimize any financial risk.
• Joint responsibility with the Supply Planner(s) to ensure that inventory levels are optimized and maintained at the targeted levels.
• Organize and lead monthly demand planning meetings with appropriate consensus from Cross Functional Teams.

What you will need:

• Educated to a degree level or equivalent professional qualification preferred.
• Supply Chain specific subject matter expertise is an advantage.
• This position requires an individual with 3-5 years of experience in demand planning / merchandising within beauty or FMCG sector.
• ERP experience in working in Demand Planning environment or/and statistical software knowledge is a strong plus.
• Proven experience of successful interaction with internal and external customers, and ability to manage own delivery of short- and medium-term objectives.
• Advanced level of Excel (PowerQuery, PowerPivot, Macros, PowerBI) is an advantage.
• Ability to build and maintain good business relationships with local commercial teams as well as Internal SCM Supply teams.
• Knowledge of Python or R is a strong advantage.
• Knowledge of Statistical Forecasting Methodology.

How we work: Having been selected among the World's Most Ethical Companies for 19 consecutive years, we are a company with a purpose and strong corporate values. We never compromise on quality and craft our products with care for the consumer and the environment. At Kao, each employee can actively shape their job and their career. We work collaboratively to achieve our common goals, always aiming to deliver the best for our customers.

Hiring Process: Kao embraces the diversity and the individual personalities of its people because we believe it is diversity that makes us strong. This is why we welcome applications from all areas of the global community.