Demand Planning Manager

Company Description ORDO is a fast-growing oral care brand founded in 2019, focused on making brighter smiles more affordable and sustainable for everyone. Built on values of accessibility, inclusivity, and environmental responsibility, ORDO delivers professional-grade oral care at everyday prices. Its range of innovative toothbrushes, water flossers, and oral care products is developed with dental professionals to ensure clinical-level performance for daily use. Guided by the philosophy of “Real People, Real Smiles,” ORDO helps customers feel confident in their oral care routines across a wide global retail network, including major retailers and independent pharmacies. The company also empowers oral care professionals to sell directly to customers, improving oral health outcomes worldwide.

🦷 PLAN THE GROWTH: Demand Planning Manager

📍 Location: Altrincham, Greater Manchester – 4 days in office

💼 Role Type: Permanent / Full-Time

🚀 Start Date: ASAP

📈 Reports to: Sales Director

🤝 Works With: Sales, Marketing, Operations, Supply Chain & Finance

🇬🇧 Employment Eligibility: Must have full right to work in the UK

💼 Salary: £40-60k depending n experience

🪥 About Ordo

Ordo is on a mission to make great oral care simple, stylish and accessible for everyone. From our sonic toothbrushes, brush heads and water flossers to our licensed kids' ranges with Squishmallows, Minions and Wicked, we make the everyday routine something people actually enjoy.

We're the fastest growing UK & US oral care brand, stocked in retailers such as Boots, Argos, Walmart, Target, Walgreens, John Lewis, Superdrug, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Morrisons and Amazon, and growing internationally.

As we continue scale across retail, D2C and international markets, getting the right stock in the right place at the right time is key to our growth. We're looking for someone to build and own the forecast the whole business runs on.

📌 Role Overview

Ordo is looking for a Demand Planning Manager to build, own and lead our demand planning process across every retailer, channel and territory.

You'll take full ownership of the SKU-level forecast, bringing together input from Sales, Marketing and Finance into a single, trusted plan that drives buying, stock and cash decisions across Ordo.

This isn't just about running a model. Our business has heavy event peaks like £10 Tuesdays, multibuys, Argos Big Red and Christmas gifting, plus regular licensed NPD drops as well as range reviews . You'll turn all of that into a forecast we can defend, and stock that's ready when demand lands. This is a role for someone who already knows FMCG demand planning and is ready to own a business-critical process end-to-end.

🤝 Key Responsibilities

Build the Demand Planning Foundation

• Design and own a single, structured demand plan covering all retailers across the globe
• Set the standard for how Account Managers submit forecasts, promo plans and NPD inputs, and train them to deliver them consistently and on time
• Build the link between retailer EPOS (sell-out) and our sell-in, so we plan to real consumer demand

Run the Monthly S&OP Cycle

• Own and run a monthly S&OP cycle: gather inputs, reconcile them against a statistical baseline and keep the cadence running reliably
• Lead forecast review meetings that challenge assumptions, surface risks and opportunities, and hold contributors accountable
• Track forecast accuracy and bias by SKU, account and channel, and use them to keep improving the process

Plan Promotions, Launches & Peak

• Build promo uplift into the forecast by mechanic and retailer, using past promo performance to sharpen future plans
• Plan licensed and NPD launches and SKU phase-outs, flagging the stock and cash implications early
• Lead peak planning for Q4 gifting, Black Friday and key retailer events, so we're never out of stock when it matters most

Turn the Forecast into Decisions

• Translate the demand plan into purchasing and inventory recommendations, including safety stock and reorder points, protecting availability without tying up unnecessary cash
• Give the business clear visibility of stock health, cover and OOS risk, flagging issues early enough for Sales, Ops and Finance to act
• Work closely with Supply Chain on lead times, MOQs and freight, balancing cost, speed and sustainability

Be Ordo's Demand Planning Expert

• Establish the demand plan as the single source of truth for the business
• Partner with Sales, Marketing and Finance so the plan reflects real market signals and feeds budgets and forecasts
• Bring structure, rigour and smart use of tools (including AI) to how we plan, report and make decisions

✅ Requirements

Must-Haves

• 5 years' experience in demand planning, forecasting or supply chain analysis, ideally in FMCG, retail or consumer electronics
• Advanced Excel / Google Sheets skills: comfortable building and maintaining SKU-level forecast models from scratch
• Strong understanding of inventory concepts such as safety stock, forecast accuracy, bias and working-capital trade-offs
• Experience forecasting promotions and new product launches across multiple retailers
• Sharp analytical skills: able to turn messy, incomplete data (EPOS, sell-in, promo calendars) into a forecast you can explain
• Confident communicator who can influence senior stakeholders and hold their ground on the forecast
• Commercially minded: you understand how forecast decisions flow through to stock, cash and service levels
• Highly organised, self-directed and comfortable owning a critical process in a lean, fast-paced team
• Full right to work in the UK

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience in oral care, health & beauty, small electricals or licensed product
• Experience working with major UK and US retailers (Boots, Argos, Walmart, Target, grocery, Amazon) and their EPOS data
• Experience implementing a planning or ERP system and knowing what a smooth go-live looks like
• Experience in a founder-led or high-growth business
• A numerical degree is great, but not a must

💚 The Ideal Candidate Is

• Data-literate, curious and commercially sharp, with a bias for action
• Calm under pressure, especially at peak and when plans change
• Detail-oriented but able to zoom out and connect insights across channels and markets
• A clear, timely communicator who keeps people informed before they have to ask
• Proactive and ownership-driven: you close the loop without being asked
• Someone who gets excited about getting it right: no stockouts, no dead stock, just the right stock

💚 What We Offer

• Competitive salary + bonus
• Enhanced Employer Pension Contribution
• Wellbeing benefits
• Hybrid working / office location perks
• Learning & Development support
• A Monthly supply on Ordo products 🪥
• Friends & Family Discounts
• The opportunity to build and own demand planning in a fast-growing UK brand 🚀