Senior Customer Planning Manager

Perfetti Van Melle•Erlanger, KY

47d

About The Position

Perfetti Van Melle (makers of Mentos and Airheads!) is one of the world's largest manufacturers and distributors of confectionery and chewing gum with global brands that are being enjoyed in more than 150 countries worldwide. We’re currently seeking a passionate and enthusiastic Senior Customer Planning Manager to join our growing team.WHAT YOU WILL DOThe Senior Customer Planning Manager leads Category Sales Planning for assigned brand(s) across channels, translating PVM’s business objectives and brand strategies into channel-specific plans that deliver sustainable, profitable growth. This role serves as the key liaison between Sales and Brand Marketing, providing business intelligence and insights to inform customer planning and execution. The SCPM ensures alignment across go-to-market processes, incorporating the customer perspective into key activities such as business planning, forecasting, and new product launches. They also maintain a cross-channel view of new product launches/brand launches, support leadership in go/no-go decisions, and drive connectivity and alignment across Sales, Marketing, Category Insights, and Supply Chain to achieve business objectives. Additional responsibilities include:•

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business or related field required; MBA preferred.
10+ years CPG experience in Trade, Customer Planning, or a Field Sales role with customer exposure.
Strong understanding of channel and key retailer practices
Involvement with customer annual planning process
Ability to work effectively across departments — Marketing, Supply Chain, Finance, Category/Insights, Retail Growth Management
Demonstrated ability to influence across the organization
Matrix management and project management experience
Financial acumen - P&L management exposure
Thrives in fast-paced, multi-tasking environment while being highly organized and structured.
Excellent communication skills, both verbal / written with internal / external contacts.
Senior level relationship building skills. Ability to direct decision making.
Strong Word, Excel and PowerPoint skills.

Responsibilities

Own the customer planning process and oversee the development of plan creation (e.g., guidance provided by finance, input from marketing based on priorities, sales creating customer-specific plans, etc.).
Set clear and specific executional objectives (assortment, merchandising, pricing and shelving) for each brand and communicate them to sales and customer planning teams.
Ensure that channel-specific strategies and innovations are being developed by the Brands (e.g., club-specific SKUs, etc.) – work with marketing and sales to enhance this process.
Develop display vehicles across channels which support key initiatives and base/new products.
Work with marketing to develop brand stories, including what shoppers and customers care about.
Understand the competitive landscape and provide the business with context on what is happening in the market.
Provide business intelligence for specific brands/products and be well versed on what is happening in the business.
Create standard brand collateral and share it with category management and customer teams in a customer-friendly manner, so that they can tweak the story for the category/customer (deployed 2X/year).
Build new product launch plans to articulate where we are going first with new products, appropriate pricing, shipping dates, etc.
Advise the category management team on key inputs to retailer selling story.
Provide recommendations for SKU rationalization to ensure portfolio health.
Provide sales input to the marketing/innovation team regarding product development (e.g., pricing, pack size, etc.) – maintain cross-channel view for new product and brand launches.
Ensure a consistent approach across all customers managed by the field teams by maintaining cross-functional alignment of trade investment plan.
Represent customer and field voice in internal, cross-functional meetings.