Production & Supplier Planner in Coleford

As a Production & Supplier Planner, you will play a key role in ensuring the smooth and efficient supply of LRS products from demand signal to execution at the Coleford manufacturing site. Your primary focus will be to maintain excellent customer service levels by building and maintaining robust supply plans that balance safety stocks, lead times, supplier capabilities, capacity constraints, and production cycles.

You will lead resource and production planning activities, generate capacity-levelled weekly plans, and create fixed production schedules that align with our planning principles. You will also manage a portfolio of suppliers, ensuring strong communication, performance visibility, and proactive risk management. As part of our Integrated Business Planning (IBP) framework, you will run supplier operational reviews, joint planning sessions, and brand alignment meetings. You will be expected to identify risks, opportunities, and improvement areas across the supply chain and escalate where needed.

You are a naturally analytical and organised supply chain professional who thrives in dynamic FMCG environments. You bring a strong understanding of supply and demand processes and are comfortable working cross-functional with operations, procurement, quality, engineering, warehousing, and planning teams. You have strong communication skills, can build effective relationships internally and externally, and are confident in managing supplier interactions. You take ownership, work proactively, and are comfortable making decisions based on data and operational insights. Experience using SAP APO or similar systems is a significant advantage.

You will manage the full supply planning process from demand through to production execution, ensuring clear visibility of supply, early identification of risks and the creation of weekly capacity-levelled plans that meet service, safety stock and efficiency targets. You will convert these into fixed production schedules, working closely with production, warehousing and quality teams to keep operations running smoothly. You will also be responsible for managing suppliers, monitoring their performance, anticipating risks, and ensuring materials are available when needed. Through regular planning meetings and supplier reviews, you will help identify issues, support improvements and ensure suppliers are prepared for demand changes. Your role will support the Integrated Business Planning cycle, ensuring strong communication, aligned priorities and effective decision making across the supply chain.

This role offers the opportunity to become a key contributor to the availability and performance of some of the UK’s most recognised beverage brands. You will work at the centre of operations, collaborating with diverse teams and gaining deep insight into planning, manufacturing and supplier management. The position provides daily variety, meaningful responsibility and the chance to directly influence supply chain performance. You will continue developing your technical and interpersonal skills, gaining valuable experience that can open doors to future roles across planning, operations or wider supply chain functions. All of this takes place within a supportive team culture that encourages continuous improvement and professional growth.

Success in this position requires a solid foundation in supply or production planning, ideally within FMCG. You will need strong analytical skills to interpret data, understand capacity constraints and spot risks or inefficiencies. Confidence in navigating SAP APO and MRP processes will help you manage production and supplier data effectively. Being organised, responsive and able to prioritise will be essential, as the role involves coordinating with production, warehousing, engineering, procurement and demand teams. A proactive mindset, sound judgement and the ability to build strong internal and external relationships will support you in managing suppliers and keeping plans on track. Openness to occasional UK and European supplier visits is also important.

At Suntory, we recognize that diverse knowledge, perspectives, and backgrounds contribute to our collective success. We are committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace where all individuals can bring their whole selves to work every day, regardless of race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or any other protected characteristic. Our recruitment and selection processes are designed to highlight what Suntory offers as an employer while allowing candidates to share their unique skills and experiences. We understand that career trajectories vary, and if you believe your experience/background can benefit our team, we encourage you to apply. We endeavor to make our interview process as inclusive as possible and offer reasonable accommodations as needed. Together, we can cultivate a workplace where everyone can thrive and propel our mission of Growing for Good.