Demand Planner
Spinneys Dubai LLC
Total years of experience :29 years, 7 Months
Demand Planner, Commercial & Logistics Department, Spinneys Dubai LLC
DEMAND PLANNING: Prepare demand forecast for all departments and categories handled, taking into account the warehouse inventory levels, expected brand or product performance and the sales targets of current products or new products to be introduced in the market.
SALES FORECASTING: Provide sales estimates and projections based on available data considering the product’s historical behavior, market seasonality, promotions and customer trends in order to further improve the completeness and accuracy of the demand forecasts.
INVENTORY MANAGEMENT: Generate and monitor warehouse inventory stock levels, tracking shelf life of the short expiry items of these products to prevent or minimize wastage. Report and communicate to relevant category managers the ageing stocks in order to develop action plans for slow or non-moving items.
BRAND & CATEGORY MANAGEMENT: Measure category and brand performance in relation to sales targets, providing the category teams with the necessary information, reports and evaluation, analyzing historical and current performance in order to determine future opportunities by product or category.
Merchandise Analyst, Merchandising & Replenishment Department, Spinneys Dubai LLC
CATEGORY MANAGEMENT: Provide analysis & insights into the performance of the different categories handled by scheduling periodic category reviews in coordination with the category teams, identifying the potential opportunities, strength, weaknesses and threats in each specific category
CATEGORY ANALYSIS: Analyse and report actual sales, margin and wastage results, identifying key categories and products which need specific action, determining poor performing brands and products that are not meeting the minimum established performance criteria.
SPACE MANAGEMENT: Manage the introduction and removal of products and ranges by planning its order volumes (both regular as well as seasonal products), tracking its ordering process as well its sales performance, identifying the potential of the product and the reason for introducing or removing the items from the range
RANGE PLANNING: Plan and select the appropriate product assortment and category range to be carried in the new stores that are to be opened, selecting the different categories and departments which will form part of the product range best suited to the customer mix of the store
SUPPLIER MANAGEMENT: Measure supplier performance in relation to terms and targets, providing the category teams with the necessary information, reports and evaluation, analyzing historical and current category performance in order to strategically forecast future opportunities by range or product.
Operations Analyst, Merchandising & Replenishment Department, Spinneys Dubai LLC
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS & BENCHMARKING: Provide analysis & insights into the Company’s performance and competitor activities, to keep abreast of developments in the market and keep senior management aware of competitor initiatives and their impact to the Company’s operations.
RETAIL & OPERATIONS ANALYSIS: Analyse and report actual sales, margin and volume, identifying key categories and stores which need specific action, determining poor performing stores and ranges that are not meeting minimum established performance criteria.
MERCHANDISING MANAGEMENT:Develop and agree the merchandise plans so as to meet the company sales, margin and profit targets, reconciling the top-down and bottom-up plans as produced by the Merchandising and Retail Operations teams.
STORE & PRODUCT MANAGEMENT: Measure store performance in relation to budget and targets, providing the management team with the necessary information, reports and evaluation, analyzing historical and current store performance in order to strategically forecast future opportunities.
CLIENT SERVICING: Managed both local and international clients on key projects in different sectors such as FMCG, IT & telecommunications, consumer electronics & durable goods, banking & finance, hospitality & tourism, real estate and public affairs & government
PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Handled various primary and secondary research as well as B2B studies like customer segmentation, market size estimation, merchandizing evaluation, retail audit, usage & attitude studies, media habits & lifestyle measurement, mystery shopping exercises, customer satisfaction and brand health evaluation
ACCOUNT DEVELOPMENT: Improved business unit profitability by consistently achieving assigned quarterly revenue targets and ensuring customer’s satisfaction of their commissioned projects
MARKETING, ADVERTISING & PROMOTIONS: Handled assigned territory’s annual marketing, advertising and promotions budget covering 8 sales districts encompassing an area consisting of three provinces, two cities and one island-province.
TRADE MARKETING & MERCHANDISING: Responsible for the development and deployment of territory-wide trade promotions and merchandising activities designed to support the eight sales districts consisting of 18 conventional routes, 21 third party distributors and 50 key accounts.
CONSUMER PROMOTIONS & BRAND ACTIVATION: Conceptualized and implemented various ATL & BTL customer and consumer promotions and brand activations to support and grow the company’s dominant share of the beverage market
EVENT MANAGEMENT: Handled promotional strategy by organizing public events, liaising with government offices, advertising agencies & the media in support of the Company‘s public relations campaign and other corporate social responsibility activities
BRAND, PACKAGE & PRICING ANALYSIS: Preparation and allocation of appropriate brand and package mix of the territory broken down per SKU, channel, route and sales district. Responsible for pricing analysis vis-a-vis trade and market conditions as well as competitor levels
DEMAND PLANNING & SALES FORECASTING: Forecasting and budgeting of 100 million unit cases annual budget for the sales territory broken down per brand, channel type, by route and sales district.
MARKET INTELLIGENCE: Responsible for ensuring correct and updated sales information database of the territory’s 3, 500 retail outlets to provide a ready and accessible information to territory management team in order to aid in their decision-making and sales planning
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS: Management and analysis of retail audit results to guide sales managers and supervisors in analyzing the dynamics of the trade. Monitor the company’s performance against competitor activities in the local CSD market
GOING-TO-MARKET (GTM) STRATEGY: Implemented the company’s GTM design in assigned plants and territories. Guided territory managers in the design and set up of their GTM implementation by assisting sales supervisors in the conduct of route building activities by conducting volume and load analysis of all direct routes under his supervision to improve route productivity;
DISTRIBUTION DESIGN & ROUTE CONFIGURATION: Performed sales district design evaluation by conducting route performance and retail outlet analysis to maximize sales volume and retail penetration and district volume performance; Conduct Territory reconfiguration to improve volume performance, route efficiency and productivity as well as maximize retail trade penetration in support of the company’s Going-To-Market strategy;
CUSTOMER/CONSUMER DELIVERY SYSTEMS: Prepare, communicate and conduct dealer survey by spearheading customer mapping for both direct and indirect served outlets in order to gauge dealer capabilities as well as monitor competitor’s activities; Implement, monitor and maintain Key Performance Indicators and Route Productivity Standards for reference of the sales and distribution teams in order to improve the service and delivery efficiency of the sales & distribution crew;
CHANNEL MARKETING RESEARCH: Planned and conceptualized various channel research studies to understand the primary and secondary information needs of the sales and marketing department; Implemented channel-based research projects to synthesize and analyze learnings from the company’s market segments & distribution channels
PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Supervised and participated in several market assessment studies and acted as overall project coordinator for various market research projects by using a variety of tools to obtain information to support strategic decision making; Analyzed results of channel & market research projects that served as a management tool for the company’s plans and programs in order to address on-going competitor moves and other factors influencing industry trends;
COMPETITOR BENCHMARKING: Implemented the conduct of the nationwide trade distribution research for the continuous monitoring of core Company KPIs against competitor performance; Supervised and acted as overall project coordinator for various market research projects, in conjunction with external market research providers, to observe and gain understanding of the dynamics of the beverage market
TRADE & RETAIL AUDIT: Analyze results of the nationwide trade distribution research in relation to the company’s plans and programs to provide the marketing group with actionable data and presentations to facilitate decision-making of top management;
RESEARCH/PROJECT ADVISORY: Acted as technical adviser on matters relating to the local research projects of various CCBPI plants to develop appreciation for the market research process especially as a tool for a fact-based decision-making by the sales frontliners; Coordinated with the internal and external clients regarding research needs, programs & results to obtain information to support tactical & strategic marketing campaigns;
CORPORATE PLANNING: Responsible for supervising research activities related to new products or ventures the company is planning to enter; Undertake periodic reviews of the company’s volume performance, conducting regular sales forecasting and annual demand planning exercises
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: Evaluate the competitive position of the company’s products and services in the market areas where the company is operating to monitor P&L situations; Responsible for database integrity and corporate reporting system to the management
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Conduct macro & micro-economic analysis and projections to guide management and decision makers in the formulation of the annual business plan
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS: Responsible for regular volume monitoring, sales forecasting and demand planning for each of the company’s products and services; Conceptualized various feasibility studies for projects and products the company was planning to launch or carry in the market
MARKET RESEARCH: Prepared economic analysis of various projects in support of company plans and programs; Conduct market research activities to provide marketing support and information to the company’s sales personnel
MARKET INTELLIGENCE: Established and coordinated the activities of the company’s market intelligence network to keep track of competitor activities and assess the company’s performance.