Inventory Planner - Internal
London Drugs INTERNAL
1 day ago
Full-time
On-site
Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
Direct
As a valued London Drugs family member, the opportunities for career growth are unlimited! Here is a great chance for you to grow your skills and experience.
Our Richmond Head Office currently has opportunities for:
Inventory Planner
Why This Role Matters
The Inventory Planner is responsible for demand planning, inventory optimization, and allocation strategy across a group of designated categories/sub-departments. This newly created role will partner with Buyers to improve in-stock rates, reduce working capital investment, and enhance inventory productivity across the retail store network.
Why This Role Matters
The Inventory Planner is responsible for demand planning, inventory optimization, and allocation strategy across a group of designated categories/sub-departments. This newly created role will partner with Buyers to improve in-stock rates, reduce working capital investment, and enhance inventory productivity across the retail store network.
This is a foundational role in building the company's planning function, requiring someone who can both execute day-to-day planning activities and contribute to the design of planning processes, tools, and best practices.
What You'll Do
Demand Planning & Forecasting:
What You'll Do
Demand Planning & Forecasting:
- Develop and maintain demand forecasts at the Department, Subdepartment, Class, Subclass, and SKU level for assigned business areas
- Analyze historical sales data, seasonality patterns, and promotional lift to improve forecast accuracy
- Partner with Buyers and Category Managers to incorporate vendor insights, market trends, and promotional calendars into demand plans
- Identify and flag forecast exceptions requiring buyer intervention
Inventory Optimization:
- Monitor weeks of supply, turn rates, and sell-through by business area and store cluster
- Develop and maintain safety stock parameters based on demand variability and lead times
- Identify slow-moving, excess, and obsolete inventory; recommend markdown or liquidation strategies
- Support Open-to-Buy management in partnership with Category Managers
- Track and report on key inventory KPIs: turn, GMROI, in-stock %, aging inventory
Allocation & Replenishment:
- Execute store-level allocation for new items, promotional builds, and seasonal sets
- Develop store cluster profiles based on volume, demographics, and selling patterns
- Monitor replenishment performance and adjust parameters to improve service levels
- Coordinate with Supply Chain on order timing, vendor minimums, and DC capacity constraints
Analytics & Reporting:
- Build and maintain weekly/monthly inventory health dashboards for leadership review
- Conduct ad-hoc analysis to support buying decisions, assortment reviews, and promotional planning
- Identify opportunities for inventory productivity improvement and quantify potential impact
- Support month-end and quarter-end inventory reporting requirements
Process Development:
- Contribute to the design and documentation of planning processes and standard operating procedures
- Identify opportunities to improve planning tools and workflows
- Partner with IT and Supply Chain to evaluate and implement planning system enhancements
What You Bring:
- Analytical Thinking: Breaks down complex inventory problems into component parts. Identifies patterns in data and draws logical conclusions. Comfortable working with ambiguity and incomplete information.
- Collaboration: Builds productive relationships with Buyers, Merchandise Managers, and Supply Chain partners. Communicates analysis clearly and tailors message to audience. Influences without authority.
- Integrity: Demonstrates ethical decision-making and transparency in all vendor and internal dealings
- Results Orientation: Takes ownership of inventory performance within assigned categories. Proactively identifies issues and drives resolution. Meet deadlines and commitments.
- Continuous Improvement: Seeks opportunities to improve processes, tools, and outcomes. Embraces feedback and adapts approach based on results. Curious about best practices and new methodologies.
Required Qualifications:
- Strong proficiency in Excel including advanced formulas, pivot tables, and data modeling
- Experience with retail KPIs: turn, weeks of supply, sell-through, GMROI, Open-to-Buy
- SQL experience or demonstrated ability to work with large datasets
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with attention to detail
- Excellent communication skills; ability to translate data into actionable insights for merchant partners
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with planning/allocation systems
- Familiarity with BI tools such as Power BI, Tableau, or similar
- Experience in a multi-store retail environment
If you are a well-organized, motivated individual with a positive attitude, a desire to support Company initiatives, and a commitment to achieving results, this is your opportunity to grow and make an impact.
If you are interested in exploring this opportunity, we encourage you to speak with your Manager and submit your application online.
If you are interested in exploring this opportunity, we encourage you to speak with your Manager and submit your application online.
London Drugs is an equal opportunity employer. The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work and are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required.