Space Planner

About The Role

A Space Planner will manage the category/layout, ranging, and assortment decisions for the Waitrose estate for smaller, specific layouts and for specific CPGs, generating sales, profit, and efficiencies for the business through the creation and delivery of effective planograms. Translate our shop and category insights to understand the big differences in how our customers are shopping and put forward the best planograms and ranges to meet these needs. Take the range outputs from the Strategic Analytics team and convert them into the right range for each space break for each cluster. Support the broader business plans in terms of delivering great localised ranges and space our customers love, and provide support for other Partners in Space & Assortment planning on bigger layout changes and projects.

• Salary - £35,600 - £53,300
• Contract type - This position is a permanent contract.
• Working pattern/flexible working - The Partnership has adopted a hybrid working approach, meaning you'll be able to work a mixture between the office and home based upon your personal needs whilst balancing the needs of the business.
• Location - This role is a hybrid role. The home location is Bracknell
• Interview Dates - early September
  
  

Key responsibilities

• Delivery of customer focussed ranges and planograms which meet the targeted outcomes whilst ensuring that all planograms are as efficient as possible - supporting DOS, COS, and DTS targets from our plans, including reporting on the delivery against our KPIs.
• To leverage the capabilities of the Range & Space tools to deliver the category strategy outcomes through effective range planning on time to a high standard, including overlaying demographics, buying patterns, and efficiencies to develop our landed ranges.
• Understand and observe the new thinking on product buddies, developing inventory profiles for each layout, and modelling ideal time periods to generate the best plans for our shops.
• Provide ranging insights to support packaging (including SRP design) and product designs to support notable merchandising from end to end.
• Deliver Range Optimisation with the buyers in smaller layouts, with recommendations to the buyers on total deletions.
• Generate a rolling annual plan of change for the smaller layouts to capture our ranging intentions over the period
  
  

Essential Skills/experience You’ll Need

• Highly analytical with a solid background in handling complex data requirements, data manipulations, and modelling.
• Experience at reading and interpreting data, with the ability to simplify complex situations or outputs, and coupled with established solution orientation, a collaborative and friendly approach.
• Working time-sensitive situation
• Attention to detail and taking charge of your tasks while working with complex systems.
• Good judgement in all situations, methodical approach to deliver the best outcome in a busy, multi stakeholder customer-centric team.
• Effective stakeholder management and communication skills, including the ability to manage conflicting priorities.
  
  

Desirable Skills/experience You May Have

• Experience and knowledge of Space and Range systems
• Knowledge/experience of the estate/customer
  
  

About The Partnership

We’re the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.

We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.

As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect.

We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective.

As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.

Important points to note:

It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third-party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.

We also recommend that you apply as soon as possible as vacancies can close early if we see a high number of applicants.

We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.