Building Better Plans Together: How Deep Indian Kitchen Brought AOP to Life with Confido

The Problem

Deep Indian Kitchen is the #1 frozen Indian brand¹ and fastest-selling natural frozen meals brand in America.² Annual planning has always been a cross-functional effort between Sales and Finance, but it grew increasingly complex as the brand scaled into more than 24,500 stores nationwide.³ Each year, the team built its AOP through multiple spreadsheets and contributors, balancing store counts, velocities, trade plans, and forecasts. While the process had served them well early on, scaling to tens of thousands of stores demanded more automation and structure.

“Our finance team would spend weeks building the infrastructure, then hand it off to sales to layer in assumptions,” said Henry Carnes, Sales Strategy Manager. “With so many people in the files, formulas could easily break or get overwritten.”

The team also wanted greater precision. “We used to plan at the product-group level,” added Lisa Stierle, Senior Manager of Sales Planning & Trade Strategy. “That meant averaging performance across SKUs and losing the item-level visibility we needed.”

Recognizing that AOP is inherently manual and data-heavy, Deep Indian Kitchen sought a solution that could modernize things – bringing automation, structure, and reliability to a process that was reaching its limits.

The Solution

Already using Confido for trade and forecasting, Deep Indian Kitchen turned to the platform to support annual planning. “Every CPG company knows how time-consuming AOP is,” said Henry. “We knew Confido already had the data –  velocities, store counts, our historical promotion data – so it made sense to plan in the same system.”

At the time, Confido’s Scenario Planning tool was still in development. Rather than wait, Deep Indian Kitchen partnered directly with Confido’s product and engineering teams to co-build the functionality in real time. “We asked if we could plan AOP in Confido,” said Lisa. “It didn’t exist yet, but they said yes. From there, we were meeting – at times – daily, sharing feedback, and seeing updates turned around within days.”

The result was a flexible, SKU-level planning environment that replaced hundreds of manual steps and unlocked true item-level accuracy. Deep Indian Kitchen also collaborated with Confido to introduce features like weighted opportunities – automatically adjusting slotting and trade rates by probability – and simplified top-down promo planning that eliminated thousands of manual entries.

The Results & The Relationship

From day one, the partnership was deeply collaborative. “Confido wasn’t just handing us a template,” Henry said. “They were building alongside us – engineers were on calls, explaining how data was being pulled in, and incorporating feedback in real time. That transparency and responsiveness is rare.”

By the end of the cycle, Deep Indian Kitchen had completed its 2026 AOP entirely in Confido – achieving faster execution, greater visibility, and improved accuracy. “We now have a clear, consolidated view of how our business performs and how to plan for the future,” Henry said.

Lisa added, “Even with a tight deadline, they found ways to make it happen. They always heard us out and customized the system to fit how our team plans.”

Looking ahead, the team feels confident and energized. “Having done it once, we’re excited for next year – especially with the new features Confido’s rolling out,” said Henry.

“If you’re a CPG brand still doing annual planning in spreadsheets,” Henry said, “Confido is the next step. It saves time, increases accuracy, and gives you a partner who truly builds with you.”

Want to learn how Confido can streamline your AOP? Book a demo today.

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Sources: (1) SPINS, Total US - MULO+Natural, Frozen Indian Cuisine, Dollar Sales, 24 weeks ending 9/7/25. (2) SPINS, Total US - MULO, Natural Frozen Entrees, Units/TDP, TDP>35, 24 weeks ending 9/7/25. (3) SPINS, Total US - MULO+Natural+Conv, Stores Selling, L12 weeks ending 9/7/25.

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