Senior Location Planner Miladys at Mr Price Group

Job Description

• Under general direction create the department's astute pre-season & in-season store sales plans that meet the store's needs in terms of the correct buy shape per store profile & maximize store sales, clearance and space.         

Responsibilities
Current Trade:                  

• Extract & analyse store KPI's by sub department season.
• Complete a draft report highlighting all issues impacting performance.
• Lead a discussion to develop an action plan that will maximize store sales, clearance & space.
• Collaborating with the merchant planner re-forecast in-season store sales to adjust for the current trade variances.
• Convert the store sales plan to a stock plan in OTS (Open to Ship) in order to adjust SAS (Strategic Allocation System) allocations.
• Report variances & action plan in store size service levels & store cover ratios.

Post Mortem:

• Collaborating with the merchant planner to review the previous season's zero-based plan (ZBP) in order to conclude the previous seasons missed opportunities.
• Summarize in a post-mortem the previous seasons performance (sub department. store season KPI's, grade & portfolio) based off current trade reports & compile key lessons learnt.
• Complete store grading in APS (Assortment Planning System) in order to provide the merchant planning team with unit buy recommendations which will inform their strategy.                                  

Seasonal Strategy:

• Collaborating with the merchant planner develop a seasonal strategy for the sub department which will include strategic objectives & a top line financial plan which is aligned to the previous seasons post mortem & growth opportunities in comparable, new, enhanced stores as well as reduced & discontinued stores.
• Contribute to the strategy discussion & aggregate the seasonal strategy to be presented to the management team ensuring it is aligned to key company growth initiatives.                                     

Building an Assortment:

• Collaborating with the merchant planner build the assortment plan in order to balance the assortment back to key strategic store requirements.
• Amend where required store grading & unit buys in order to finalize assortment to buy.
• Contribute to the preparation of the required presentation documents in order to articulate variances to strategy in respect of profiles, grades & stores.                     

Product Allocation/Stock Allocation:

• Collaborate with Trainee Location Planner &/or Junior Location Planner to ensure all store performance deviations are actioned prior to final allocation finalization.
• Adjust & balance the forward allocations checking that required units per store are met & that the strategic assortment shape is executed as per the OTS (Open to Ship) plan.
• Monitor units being accrued for new store openings & report on variances.
• Perform store consolidations in order to optimize store stock levels.                                                     

Coaching & Development:

• Provide direction & mentorship to Trainee's, Juniors and Location planners

Qualifications
Education:

• University or Diploma Qualification with 2-3 related quantitative or supply chain subjects

Experience:

• At least 3 years' experience as a Location planner (excluding time as a Trainee/Junior)
• Experience mentoring and coaching in Location
• Proven track record with the success in development of Trainees & Juniors within Location
• Completed all available planner classroom training
• Deep functional expertise in Location planning
• Proven performance and experience in variety of products

Knowledge/ Skills:

• Knowledge on Current Trade.
• Skills pertaining to Post Mortem reports.
• Skills and ability to build a Seasonal Strategy & Assortment.
• Candidate must be computer literate & have knowledge on planning systems.
• Candidate should possess retail knowledge, brand and product understanding, customer & retail market.