Head of Planning

Job Title - Head – Planning

Department - PLANNING

Sub-Departments (Functions Overseen) - Central Planning, Category Planning, Allocation & Replenishment

Reports To - Business Head / Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Location - Gurugram, Haryana (Head Office)

Employment Type - Full-Time, Permanent

Experience - 12–16 Years

Industry - Retail

Role Overview

The Head – Planning at V2 Retail Ltd. leads the central planning function end-to-end, with direct oversight of Category Planning, Allocation & Replenishment across the company's 400+ store network. The role owns the merchandise planning framework — from seasonal range and open-to-buy (OTB) planning through to store-level allocation and replenishment execution — ensuring sales, margin, and inventory productivity targets are met. The Head – Planning sets the overall planning strategy and calendar, directs the Senior Managers heading Category Planning and Allocation & Replenishment (and their teams of planners and management trainees), and acts as the primary planning interface with buying, merchandising, supply chain, and senior leadership, driving data-led decision-making across the merchandise lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities

Central Planning Strategy & Leadership

• Own the overall planning strategy, calendar, and governance framework spanning category planning, allocation, and replenishment.
• Set the top-down merchandise budget, category-wise targets, and channel plans as part of the annual planning process.
• Define planning policies, norms, and standards (OTB, stock norms, allocation logic, replenishment triggers) applied consistently across categories and store tiers.
• Champion the adoption of planning tools, ERP systems, and analytical methods across the Planning function.

Category Planning Oversight

• Direct the seasonal range planning process for all categories — options, depth, price architecture, and channel split.
• Oversee the open-to-buy (OTB) plan, ensuring it is aligned with the overall merchandise budget and sales forecast, and review OTB utilisation and reallocation across categories.
• Guide the Category Planning team in partnering with buying to shape range and category strategy, and in reviewing buy proposals against OTB.
• Review sales forecasts by category, season, and store tier for accuracy against historical trends and market data.

Allocation & Replenishment Oversight

• Direct the allocation strategy — store tiering, cluster-wise allocation, new store seeding, and seasonal range allocation — across all categories.
• Oversee the replenishment model, including automated triggers, minimum stock norms, and replenishment frequency by store tier.
• Ensure allocation and replenishment plans are aligned with OTB, store capacity, and sales forecasts; approve escalations beyond team-level sign-off.
• Oversee inter-store stock transfer exercises and slow-moving inventory actions (consolidation, redistribution, markdowns) to optimise network-wide stock health.

In-Season Performance & Inventory Productivity

• Monitor category and network performance — sales vs. plan, sell-through, stock cover, fill rate, and margin — and direct corrective actions.
• Lead periodic reviews of markdown recommendations, replenishment pull-forwards, and reallocation based on in-season trends.
• Drive end-of-season analysis across categories and store clusters, capturing learnings to refine planning, allocation, and replenishment logic for future seasons.

Team Leadership & Development

• Lead and develop the Senior Managers heading Category Planning and Allocation & Replenishment, and their respective teams of planners and management trainees.
• Set clear KPIs for the Planning function; conduct performance reviews, build succession pipelines, and coach senior team members.
• Standardise planning templates, SOPs, and reporting formats across category planning, allocation, and replenishment.

Strategy & Stakeholder Management

• Present overall planning performance, stock health, and category updates to senior leadership.
• Serve as the primary planning stakeholder for buying, merchandising, supply chain, warehouse, VM, and marketing teams.
• Lead the annual merchandise planning process and contribute planning inputs to broader business strategy.

Skills & Experience Required

Essential | Experience: 12–16 Years

• 12–16 years of experience in merchandise planning, category management, allocation, or supply chain in retail — fashion retail preferred — including experience leading planning teams or sub-functions.
• Proven track record leading category planning and/or allocation & replenishment functions, ideally across both, in a multi-store retail environment.
• Strong analytical skills — ability to build and review OTB models, range plans, sales forecasts, and allocation logic, and to derive insights from large data sets.
• Proficiency in MS Excel and retail planning/ERP tools (SAP, Unicommerce, o9, or similar).
• Deep understanding of retail planning metrics — OTB, GMROII, sell-through, weeks of cover, margin %, fill rate, and stock norms.
• Proven leadership experience — managing multiple teams or sub-functions through senior managers.
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills — ability to align buying, supply chain, store operations, and senior leadership around planning decisions.

Desirable

• Experience with advanced planning tools.
• Postgraduate degree in Business Administration, Retail Management, Statistics, or Supply Chain Management.
• Experience building planning, allocation, or replenishment frameworks for large-format value fashion retail.

Key Performance Indicators

Sell-through rate — achieve seasonal sell-through targets across all categories and store tiers.

OTB adherence — actual buys within ±5% of approved OTB plan across categories.

Gross margin — deliver planned gross margin / GMROII targets per season.

Fill rate — maintain replenishment fill rate ≥95% across the store network.

Weeks of cover — maintain stock cover within defined norms; reduce excess and stock-out instances.

Stock-out rate — keep unplanned stock-out incidence below threshold on running styles.

Allocation accuracy — allocation vs. plan variance <2% across the function.

Sales forecast accuracy — actuals vs. forecast variance within acceptable range.

Inventory productivity — improve overall stock turns and reduce markdown liability through allocation and inter-store transfer effectiveness.

Team performance — 100% of team KPIs reviewed quarterly; succession pipeline maintained across the Planning function.