Commercial Planning Business Partner Off-Trade

Position

To act as the strategic Commercial Business Partner for the Off-Trade channel, partnering with the sales director, head of channels, account managers, to drive sustainable growth, revenue delivery, profitability and forecast accuracy across MHUK’s largest commercial channel.

The role will own the commercial planning rhythm for Off-Trade, translating customer, channel and brand performance insights into clear recommendations, risks and opportunities, and action plans. It will play a critical role in shaping business decisions across forecasting, customer profitability, pricing, promotional investment, stock management and performance governance.

Job responsibilities

Commercial Planning & Strategic Business Partnering

• Own the Off-Trade commercial planning agenda, ensuring clear alignment between commercial strategy, financial targets and operational delivery.
• Act as strategic business partner to the Off-Trade Sales Director and wider sales teams, providing insight, challenge and recommendations to support customer and channel decision-making.
• Lead the monthly Off-Trade forecasting cycle, challenging customer assumptions and ensuring robust Sell-In, Sell-Out, stock and phasing projections.
• Lead Off-Trade inputs into Budget, Forecast and Strategic Planning cycles, ensuring robust assumptions across customer, channel, product mix, pricing, promotional investment and Maison guidelines.
• Provide commercial planning support and strategic challenge across grocery, convenience, wholesale and e-commerce, ensuring customer plans are aligned with MHUK’s brand, value and profitability ambitions.

Revenue, Margin & Customer Profitability Management

• Lead the review and challenge of volume, price, mix, discounts and revenue forecasts, ensuring alignment with commercial objectives and financial targets.
• Own the quarterly customer profitability review process for key Off-Trade customers, providing full visibility of customer P&Ls, margin evolution and value creation opportunities.
• Monitor customer inventory, Sell-Out performance, promotional activity, rate of sale and stock-in-trade to anticipate risks, unlock opportunities and support landing management.
• Drive delivery of volume, revenue, gross margin and profitability objectives across key Off-Trade customers and channels.

Performance Governance, Insight & Reporting

• Own Off-Trade performance governance, consolidating customer and channel performance into a clear view of delivery versus Budget, Forecast and Prior Year.
• Lead monthly Financial Business Reviews with commercial stakeholders, ensuring alignment on performance drivers, risks, opportunities and required actions.
• Develop senior-level performance narratives, turning complex data into concise insights and recommendations for leadership decision-making.
• Enhance reporting tools, dashboards and forecasting processes to improve efficiency, data accuracy and business visibility.
• Present monthly performance updates, forecast movements and strategic recommendations to senior leadership teams.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Capability Building

• Build strong and influential relationships across Sales, Finance, Marketing, Demand Planning, MH Europe, Maison stakeholders and central IT teams.
• Act as a connector between commercial and finance teams, ensuring one aligned view of performance, forecast, risks, opportunities and action plans.
• Embed a data-led and value-focused mindset across the Off-Trade team through insight sharing, training and proactive business partnering.
• Coach and develop the Commercial Planning Off-Trade Intern, supporting analytical, commercial and stakeholder-management capability growth.

Profile

Education

• Degree-level education or equivalent professional experience.

Professional Experience & Know-How

• 5+ proven experience in planning, sales finance, revenue growth management, FP&A, customer planning, commercial finance or business partnering.
• Proven ability to partner with and challenge senior commercial stakeholders, including Sales Directors, Account Leads and Finance leaders.
• Strong understanding of P&L management, revenue, gross margin, price/mix, trade investment, customer profitability and value chain dynamics.
• Experience working with customer, channel, category, sales and financial performance data to generate insights and influence commercial decisions.
• Experience managing forecasting, budget or strategic planning cycles in a commercial environment.
• Experience in FMCG, luxury, wines & spirits, beverages or another branded consumer goods environment would be advantageous.
• Experience working with Off-Trade customers or channels, including grocery, convenience, wholesale, e-commerce or discounters, would be a plus.

Technical Skills

• Advanced Excel skills and strong data-modelling capability; VBA or automation experience is a plus.
• Strong Power BI, Tableau or equivalent data visualisation capability.
• Comfortable working with large customer, sales, finance and forecasting datasets.
• Financial literacy, including P&L, NSI, margin, price/mix and customer profitability analysis.
• Ability to translate complex data into clear commercial insights, recommendations and senior-level presentations.

Personal & Interpersonal Skills

• Strong communicator with the ability to influence, challenge and build credibility with senior stakeholders.
• Commercially curious, proactive and confident in forming recommendations from complex or imperfect data.
• Strong analytical mindset with the ability to move from insight to action.
• Highly organised, rigorous and able to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Comfortable operating with ambiguity and driving clarity across complex business topics.
• Collaborative team player who builds trust across functions while maintaining constructive challenge.
• Autonomous, resilient, adaptable and solution-oriented.

Languages

• Fluent English.
• Another international language is a plus.