Ezra Mtambeka

I am a Supply Chain Planner who has forecast demand and managed inventory for 312 retail stores across four distribution centers in South Africa's largest FMCG grocery chain. I have held 99% stock accuracy in omnichannel inventory control (SAP + Shopify + POS) and built seasonal buy plans for promotional volumes exceeding 200,000 cases.

I work at both ends of the supply chain problem: I build the forecast, then I chase the variance when reality diverges from the plan. Today I bring that discipline to [Company Name], combined with hands-on experience in DTC e-commerce operations that gives me a 360-degree view of how inventory decisions flow from the DC to the customer's doorstep.

• Built and operated Vora Back Offices, a remote e-commerce operations consultancy serving US and UK DTC brands. I owned P&L accountability for client inventory positions, order fulfillment, and financial reconciliation while maintaining 100% on-time fulfillment and zero stockout events for core SKUs.
• Designed and deployed Shopify store architectures for brands entering US and UK markets, configuring multi-location inventory, collection taxonomy, and SKU metadata.
• Architected Zapier automation workflows synchronizing Shopify → QuickBooks → Stripe, eliminating 15+ hours of weekly manual data entry.
• Executed zero-downtime SKU migrations in Matrixify for global product catalogs exceeding 200 SKUs, maintaining 100% data integrity.
• Managed cross-border fulfillment documentation for US and UK destination markets, ensuring 100% customs clearance compliance.
• Delivered 99% stock accuracy across 26 retail stores and e-commerce channels by reconciling SAP, Shopify, ORP, and POS systems in real time. I did not just find variances — I eliminated them at source through root-cause analysis, reducing inventory shrinkage and in annual write-offs
• Partnered with Finance and Business Solutions to produce daily and weekly stock variance reports that informed inventory investment decisions and surfaced margin exposure to senior management.
• Led ERP integration troubleshooting across four systems (SAP, Shopify, ORP, POS), securing real-time visibility into stock movement, inbound allocations, and sales order history.
• Implemented corrective action plans reducing inventory shrinkage and stock loss across the retail estate.• Owned demand forecasting and replenishment planning for a 312-store national grocery chain across four distribution centers (Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape), managing a 23-vendor portfolio spanning 200+ articles in commodities, packaged goods, baking, and beverages.
• Built seasonal buy-plans for peak trading events (Easter, Eid, Black Friday, Festive) consolidating promotional SKU quantities of 30,000 to 200,000 cases per run against 2-day DC lead times — a constraint that demanded precision, not padding.
• Sustained a 98% performance benchmark across replenishment accuracy, vendor strike rates, stock turns, and promotional performance by reallocating inventory against live sales trends in real time.
• Designed new product introduction (NPI) forecasts for SKUs with zero trading history by modeling against comparable-SKU performance, setting initial order and allocation quantities that minimized launch risk while protecting availability.
• Implemented Just-in-Time (JIT) replenishment and reallocated short-dated, obsolete, and dormant stock, reducing write-offs and carrying costs while sustaining 98%+ product availability.• Managed Open-to-Buy (OTB) controls and financial planning across fashion and apparel categories, converting sales projections into inventory procurement plans and buying targets that held spend within budget while protecting stock availability.
• Produced monthly, seasonal, and annual financial forecasts by category, translating top-line sales targets into bottom-line inventory investments with gross margin and inventory turnover guardrails.
• Developed assortment and range plans with Buying, Marketing, Store Operations, and Logistics stakeholders, optimizing range size and product mix against market trends and consumer demand signals.
• Executed markdown and promotional strategies aligned to marketing campaigns, accelerating sell-through on slow-moving and terminal stock and improving recovery value.
• Conducted post-season analysis refining forecast assumptions and range decisions for subsequent cycles, creating a feedback loop that improved forecast accuracy season over season.
• Substituted constrained SKUs with comparable alternatives during supplier production issues, holding availability for 312 stores without promotional disruption.

Diploma in Accountancy – Nelson Mandela University (2015-02 – 2018-11)