Senior Supply Planner

Finsbury Food; Salisbury; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading specialty bakery manufacturer in Salisbury seeks a Senior Supply Planner for a 12-month contract covering maternity leave. The role involves aligning plans with production schedules, ensuring quality standards, and managing inventory. Ideal candidates should have experience in production planning within FMCG, strong ERP skills, and a commitment to quality. The position offers competitive benefits including enhanced maternity leave, pension schemes, and personal development opportunities.

Benefits

Enhanced maternity & paternity leave

Enhanced pension scheme

Death in service benefit

Free employee assistance programme

Retail discounts

Refer a friend scheme

Employee recognition awards

Learning & development opportunities

Qualifications

• Solid understanding of trade processes, ideally within FMCG.
• Proven experience in production planning and scheduling.
• Experience in leading and coaching a small team.

Responsibilities

• Align plans with production schedules and enhance efficiency.
• Ensure Health & Safety and quality standards are upheld.
• Participate in daily site meetings and provide updates on KPIs.

Skills

Understanding of trade processes in FMCG

Experience in production planning

Experience in leading and coaching a team

User experience with ERP systems

Proficiency in Excel and MRP tools

Attention to detail

Positive attitude

Tools

ERP Systems (e.g., M3)

MRP Tools (e.g., Optimity)

Job description

Nicholas & Harris, Salisbury, SP2 7PU

Competitive

12-month fixed-term contract, covering maternity leave.

Nicholas & Harris is part of the Finsbury Food Group and has over 180 years of heritage in craft baking. We’re a leading speciality bakery manufacturer supplying high-quality products across the foodservice sector. As part of Finsbury, we are committed to raising standards, investing in our people, and driving a culture of continuous improvement across all areas of the site.

Location: Nicholas & Harris, Salisbury, SP2 7PU

Shift: Monday to Friday, 37.5 hours per week

Salary: Competitive

We are pleased to offer an exciting opportunity for a Senior Supply Planner to join the Demand Planning team at Nicholas & Harris on a 12‑month fixed‑term contract, covering maternity leave.

This is what you’ll actually do!

In this role, you will work closely with Demand, Supply Planning and Manufacturing teams to align plans with the Production Schedules, communicate deviations, identify and resolve supply constraints, and enhance overall efficiency and productivity. You will ensure Health & Safety and quality standards are upheld across all scheduling activities while continuously improving production scheduling systems and methods to deliver the most efficient plans to Manufacturing. The role includes providing accurate labour plans to support optimal labour deployment, managing finished goods master data from set‑up to delist, and overseeing on‑site and off‑site finished goods inventory, including mitigating low‑life stock risks.

You will actively participate in daily site meetings, production reviews and short interval control meetings, providing updates on key KPIs, scheduling activities and potential impacts to the production plan. You will anticipate and mitigate short‑term supply chain risks, deliver KPIs with a strong focus on service level attainment, and lead the weekly planning meeting to coordinate manufacturing, engineering and operations support, ensuring accurate labour planning and accommodation of maintenance windows.

Additionally, you will liaise with the Supply Planning team to plan and deliver seasonal freeze campaigns, mentor and develop a small team of planners. As part of the site’s Tier 3 team, you will act as the key representative for the Nicholas & Harris planning team and provide holiday cover for Production Schedulers, including developing and maintaining production schedules, managing finished goods inventory to achieve service levels of 98.5% or above while minimising write‑offs, delivering data insights on yield and efficiency, and communicating effectively across all departments to ensure alignment.

Ideally this is you!

• Solid understanding of bov trade processes, ideally within FMCG.
• Proven experience in production planning and scheduling.
• Experience in leading and coaching a small team.
• Key user experience with ERP systems (e.g., M3).
• Proficiency in Excel and MRP tools (e.g., Optimity).
• High attention to detail and commitment to quality standards.
• Positive attitude.

What’s in it for you!

• Enhanced maternity & paternity leave to allow quality time with your new arrival.
• Enhanced pension scheme for our employees.
• Death in service benefit.
• Free employee assistance programme (open to colleagues and their families).
• Retail discounts via our benefits hub platform.
• Refer a friend scheme (up to £300 per referral – T&C’s dependent).
• Employee recognition awards – extensive learning & development opportunities (including opportunities for sponsored professional memberships and our own in‑house development course).
• An opportunity to be part of a fantastic, growing organisation – head over to our LinkedIn page to find out more.

Our vision is to be the leading specialty bakery group in the UK, and we want the best people in place to achieve this. Our continued success is built entirely on the talented people who work here, so employee development is important to us because everyone is a valued member of the team, and we want every individual to have the skills and capabilities to achieve both his own personal goals and our business goals. If this sounds like you, please get in contact to learn more!