Planning Manager

Planning Manager

Location: Milton Keynes

Salary: £50,000 - £60,000 

Company: The Compleat Food Group

At The Compleat Food Group, we're on a journey to create great quality food that people love to eat.

We're looking for an experienced Planning Manager to lead our planning function at our Milton Keynes site and play a key role in ensuring we deliver exceptional service to our customers while driving operational efficiency across the business.

This is a fantastic opportunity for an established Planning Manager or a Senior Planner ready to take the next step in their career.

About the Role

As Planning Manager, you will lead a team of Production Planners and Material Controllers, ensuring production plans are robust, achievable, and aligned to customer demand.

You'll be responsible for balancing capacity, labour, materials, inventory and service levels, whilst driving continuous improvement across the planning function.

Working closely with Commercial, Operations, Supply Chain and Site Leadership teams, you'll help shape both short and long-term planning strategies to ensure we consistently meet our customer commitments.

What You'll Be Doing

• Leading and developing the site Planning team.
• Creating and managing production plans to meet customer demand.
• Ensuring raw materials and packaging are available when required.
• Managing inventory levels and reducing waste.
• Forecasting future capacity requirements and material usage.
• Coordinating seasonal and peak demand planning activities.
• Monitoring and improving planning KPIs, including service, labour and waste metrics.
• Managing planning systems and driving data accuracy.
• Building strong relationships across Operations, Commercial, Supply Chain and Technical functions.
• Identifying risks and implementing mitigation plans to protect customer service.

What We're Looking For

To be successful in this role, you'll need:

• Proven experience within a Planning Manager, Supply Chain Manager, Senior Planner or equivalent role.
• Previous planning experience within a chilled and/or frozen food manufacturing environment is essential.
• Strong understanding of food manufacturing operations and short shelf-life products.
• Experience leading S&OP, demand planning, production planning or supply planning processes.
• Experience managing and developing planning teams.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Advanced Excel skills and experience working with ERP/MRP systems.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• A continuous improvement mindset with the ability to challenge and improve existing processes.

Why Join Us?

The Compleat Food Group is one of the UK's leading chilled food manufacturers, supplying some of the nation's best-loved retailers and foodservice customers. We offer a collaborative environment where your ideas are valued, your development is supported, and your impact is visible.

If you're an experienced planning professional from a chilled or frozen food manufacturing background looking for your next challenge, we'd love to hear from you.

Apply today and help us make every day taste better.