Marketing and Planning Analyst

About the Company:

Walkers Shortbread makes the “World’s Finest Shortbread” in six factories nestled in the Highlands of Scotland.  

Shortbread is the traditional Scottish cookie and Walkers is the quintessential, authentic Scottish Shortbread, made with only 4 simple and pure ingredients (Flower, Butter, Sugar, Salt) for 120 years. Walkers is a family owned business into the 4^th generation. 

Major domestic Shortbread brands in the USA do not offer “clean” ingredient labels and utilize less expensive shortenings and oils rather than Butter, the key component in genuine shortbread.  

Walkers Shortbread is one of the most omni-channel consumer food brands in the United States, with sales spread among Grocery, Club, Specialty, Convenience, Mass, Drug, Coffee, e-commerce, Office supply and other channels. 

Walkers wishes to expand upon its strategy to further develop its brand and business in certain channels. and seeks a full-time Sales Planning and Development Manager to help develop, assess, and implement options for strategy and tactical development. 

Position Summary:  

Primary Position Objective: Work with Walkers sales and marketing teams to drive strategic and sustainable development of the Walkers brand and business in the USA 

This position serves as an internal consultant and database manager with responsibilities for the following:

• Trade Marketing, Sales planning and analysis
• Managing and fully leveraging the IRI Unify databases
• Administering and managing the company’s sales reporting system database.
• Developing and presenting analysis, implications, and customer/business recommendations.
• Assisting in the compilation and preparation of the company’s monthly reporting.
• Working with management and the team to find ways to better manage information, control costs, improve efficiency, understand the marketplace, consumers, and customers.
• Working with sales managers to develop customer and business plans and presentations. 

The Marketing and Planning Analyst will demonstrate consistent, pro-active engagement within the company and can be relied upon to provide timely and thorough project management and follow-up.  

Responsibilities:

• Work with sales managers to develop persuasive, fact-based customer presentations that enable achievement of Walkers distribution, merchandising, promotional, and sales objectives.
  
• Timely and accurate reporting on Customer and Product, and competitive sales:
  
• Weekly sales and order reporting
  
• Monthly sales reports and analysis
  
• Bridging of internal sales databases and IRI databases to help with inventory and order management
  
• Competitive analysis
  
• Variance analysis
  
• Customer Promotion data – Work to enhance the effectiveness of promotional resources, analyzing company investment trends and comparing with market and other external data (ROI).
  
• With marketing manager, lead market research and consumer insight development
  
• With Operations Manager, optimize inventory and supply chain management
  
• ROI analysis on promotional and marketing expenditures.
  
• Broker Management: Development and tracking of objectives and participation in implementation
  
• Manage sales forecast process and reports
  
• Assist sales and marketing management providing detailed market, competitor, and customer, analyses for customer presentations and plan development.
  
• Preparation of other Ad-Hoc business analyses as business needs arise. 
  

Skills & Experience:

·       Technical Skills - Advanced computer and business software skills including Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. Ability to effectively administer and manage the company’s database reporting systems (Matillion, Crystal Reports, Business Insights, IRI).

·       Analytical Skills: Strong analytical and business analysis skills. Some knowledge of finance and accounting.

·       Business Judgment - Able to provide thoughtful and meaningful insights and recommendations developed from compellation and analysis of business information and development of knowledge.

·       Presentation- Presents work in formats that are appropriate to the specific business needs.

·       Proactive Behavior - Invests effort in learning and understanding the business, market, and industry. Can anticipate requirements and adds value before being put to task.  
         
        Project Management - Ability to manage and organize projects and workflow. Adjust to changing priorities (independently and/or taking initiative) and see projects through to completion. Demonstrates excellence in attention to detail, driving results, and process improvement.

·       Communications Skills - Communicative, inquisitive, helpful, team oriented.

·       Education – MS, MBA or BS/BA at minimum. Educational accomplishments in analytics, market research, information systems, finance, marketing are highly desirable.