Demand & inventory planner

BE - Ardo Headquarters

Supply Chain

Permanent contract

Ardo supplies its continuously growing markets around the world with high quality frozen vegetables, herbs, and fruit with 3300 employees and 16 production, packing & distribution sites in 7 different countries. The family business sells in more than 100 countries and has a turnover of more than 1.4 billion euros. The proximity of our factories to our crops is one of our key strengths and ensures that only minutes are lost between harvest and locking in the product's natural goodness in our freezers.

Ardo's mission is to preserve the gift of nature for future generations by providing fresh frozen, plant-based food while minimizing our impact on the planet. Ardo achieves this goal thanks to an integrated network of growing areas, production units, freezing units, packaging equipment, appropriate logistics and thorough quality control. The group's know-how and flexible structure ensure that it can respond quickly to new trends and that innovative product can be brought onto the market quickly.

Your Scope

As a Demand & Inventory Planner, you operate within the Group Supply Chain, including Supply Planning Bulk, Transport & Warehousing. You report to the Group Demand & Inventory Planning Manager.

You will take ownership of the demand signal and support the business by delivering accurate forecasts, leading demand reviews, and managing inventory levels to balance service, cost, and obsolescence risks. You collaborate closely with Sales, Supply Planning, Customer Service and Sales Support.

Your responsibilities

§ Manage the full demand planning process for your assigned portfolio and continuously seek improvements.

§ Build accurate forecasts together with the sales community based on trends, customer input, promotions, contracts, and market insights.

§ Lead monthly Demand Review meetings with Sales and other stakeholders to discuss forecast performance (KPIs), budget alignment, sales pipeline, product life cycle changes, stock levels, and supply-demand gaps.

§ Clearly communicate the forecast, including base plan, upside potential, and risk. Enabling planning teams to take action.

§ Monitor and follow up on forecast deviations, outliers, trends, and volume shifts.

§ Identify and manage risks related to out-of-stock situations, excess stock, and demand shifts.

§ Manage slow movers, aging stock, and obsolete products, with close follow-up on product launches and discontinuations.

§ Maintain and optimize inventory parameters (MRP) and define the right inventory strategy per product type (e.g. make-to-stock vs. make-to-order).

§ Track and report key KPIs, including Forecast Accuracy, Bias, and Weeks on Hand.

§ Work cross-functionally with Sales, Supply Planning, Customer Service, Procurement, and other departments to ensure full alignment and support company objectives.

Your profile

Are you someone with the following qualifications:

§ Bachelor's or Master's degree, preferably in economics, business, or a related field.

§ Minimum 3–5 years of experience in demand planning, ideally in FMCG, food industry, or B2B environments.

§ Experience with product lifecycle management, contracts, or promotional planning is a plus.

§ Comfortable working in a complex, fast-changing environment with high product turnover.

§ Hands-on experience in Demand Planning, Supply Planning, S&OP or similar processes.

§ Good understanding of demand variability and a strong drive to improve forecast accuracy.

§ Familiar with demand planning software.

§ Advanced skills in Microsoft Excel; strong analytical thinking.

§ Knowledge of statistics and enrichment techniques.

§ IBF Certification (e.g. Certified Professional Forecaster) is a strong plus.

§ Strong communication and interpersonal skills.

§ Structured, detail-oriented, and improvement-driven.

§ Confident in stakeholder management across different levels of the organization.

§ Fluent in Dutch and English; knowledge of French and/or German is a plus.

We offer

A dynamic family business and an international company. At Ardo you will find the best of both worlds. Your knowledge, skills and dedication are regarded as the company's driving force.

The freedom to actively participate in shaping the business and the opportunity to develop professionally.

We offer an attractive remuneration and extra-legal package. We care for our people and create family-friendly surroundings by offering you the flexibility to work 2 days/week from home.