Demand Planning Executive

About the Role: We are looking for a Demand Planning Analyst to join our Supply Chain team, reporting to the Category Demand Planner and playing a key role in Sales & Operating Planning. This role is responsible for consolidating the long-term demand plan and translating data into clear, actionable insights that support both weekly demand planning and monthly long-range forecasts.

Using tools such as APO and Blue Yonder, the Demand Planning Analyst will analyse demand data to build optimised plans that maximise product availability and freshness. Working closely with cross-functional teams, the role will assess forecast versus budget performance, identify risks and opportunities, and provide visibility of product demand volumes to ensure plans align with lead times and operational constraints.

The Demand Planning Analyst will partner with the Category Demand Planner to present demand plans during consensus meetings and contribute to wider supply chain reviews. This includes aligning forecasting, demand, and supply processes, measuring forecast accuracy against budget, and assessing the downstream impact on the supply chain.

As a key interface between the business and the end-to-end planning function, this role offers a pivotal entry point into the Supply Chain organisation. It helps ensure strong cross-functional alignment on critical supply chain KPIs, including forecast accuracy, freshness, and service level, while supporting informed decision-making across the business.

Main Responsibilities: We are seeking a Demand Planning Analyst to play a key role in aggregating plans, shaping demand forecasts, and supporting the Sales & Operations Planning cycle. This position works closely with Sales, Marketing, and Supply Chain teams to ensure demand plans are robust, aligned, and operationally achievable.

The role is responsible for collecting and consolidating historical and forecast data from Sales and Marketing, including volume, revenue, and pricing, with distributor input considered where relevant. This data is aggregated into a consistent planning framework, covering product and SKU-level views by week for the short term, and brand-level views by month for the mid-term horizon. Ongoing collaboration with Sales and Marketing stakeholders is essential to provide support, capture updates, and continuously adjust the demand plan.

The role also supports the business by sharing forecasting methodologies and tools to drive consistency and understanding. Within demand planning, the role ensures a comprehensive demand plan across the full S&OP horizon, taking into account trends, commercial initiatives, distributor insights, and advanced analytics. It provides valuable input on operational plans and constraints and translates demand into an executable delivery plan at SKU, weekly, quantity, and price level, while recognising constraints that cannot be managed.

The demand plan is operationalised across a rolling horizon of up to 18 months using the relevant planning tools, including the group demand planning system to establish baseline forecasts. The role acts as a Brand Owner within the S&OP process, working closely with both local and central stakeholders. It ensures key topics, including product destruction or write-off considerations, are incorporated into S&OP discussions or addressed through dedicated routines.

The position delivers clear KPIs and reporting, prepares and supports local S&OP meetings, and ensures agreed decisions are accurately reflected in the demand plan. It also contributes to the annual budget process by collecting, evaluating, and operationalising major changes or discontinuities.

In addition, the role supports Sales and Marketing teams with forecasting for new product launches. This includes building demand plans by analysing trends and seasonality of comparable products, reviewing previous launch curves, and developing pipeline forecasts to support successful market introductions.

About You: The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of the Sales & Operations Planning process and experience working within cross-functional teams to solve complex business challenges. They bring an inquisitive and constructive mindset, with the confidence to challenge assumptions and communicate clearly and honestly when needed. They are objective, fair, and able to quickly build trust and credibility with stakeholders at all levels.

This role requires a proven ability to communicate and present information in a clear, concise, and engaging way. The successful candidate is not satisfied with the status quo and is motivated to continuously improve processes, reduce delays, and drive better outcomes. They are comfortable working under pressure, able to prioritise effectively to meet deadlines, and remain adaptable in a fast-paced environment.

A willingness to learn, share best practices, and collaborate openly with others is essential, along with experience in forecasting and demand planning.

Our Benefits & Perks: Careers with caring built in - discover our benefits here.

About Ferrero: Ferrero began its journey in the small town of Alba in Piedmont, Italy, in 1946. Today, it is one of the world’s largest sweet-packaged food companies, with many iconic brands sold in countries all over the world. Find out more about Ferrero at ferrero.com.

DE&I at Ferrero: Ferrero is committed to building a diverse and inclusive culture in which all employees feel welcomed and appreciated and have the same opportunities. We believe all our people are equally talented in their own way. In nurturing the curiosity and natural abilities of our employees, we provide them, generation after generation, the means to succeed personally and professionally, enabling them to craft their journey at Ferrero. The diversity of our talents is what makes our work environment multicultural, innovative, and highly rewarding.