Refreshment Manager - Orange County, CA

What makes this a great opportunity?

Suntory Global Spirits is a world leader in premium spirits with $5.5 billion in annual revenues and an ambition to become the World’s Most Admired Premium Spirits Company. We have a strong vision and strategy, an incredible brand portfolio grounded in quality and craftsmanship, an unwavering commitment to sustainability and top talent across the organization. We are focused on driving value across key priorities including American whiskey, Japanese Spirits, Scotch, Tequila and Ready-to-Drink. Headquartered in New York City, Suntory Global Spirits is a subsidiary of Suntory Holdings, which is world renowned for delivering quality and excellence across a range of products and categories.

Mission of the Role
Lead the development and execution of Suntory Global Spirits' refreshment strategy within the On-Premise channel. Partner with customers to establish relationships and test signature refreshment serves that enhance consumer experience, drive consistency and quality, and drive profitable growth for both customers and SGS brands.  The role engages with commercial excellence, brand marketing, channel development, commercial teams, and key customers to create scalable refreshment programs that can be adopted across priority on-premise accounts.

Role Responsibilities

1.    Establish Customer Relationships and Deliver KPIs
•    Responsible for the SGS portfolio management within an assigned territory of 30+ on-premise outlets focused on identifying new refreshment occasions and emerging consumer needs.
•    Ensure end-to-end execution of commercial deliverables and KPI’s: distribution, menus, features, visibility in compliance with brand standards.
•    Accountable for delivering territory financial plan: depletion NSV & depletion Gross Profit.
•    Develop and execute SGS brand & consumer-pull programming during key promotional periods.
•    All in service of growing market share against syndicated data sources.
•    Manage demand creation tools inclusive of high-value POS, consumer sampling and events, and national consumer-offers, speed to service solutions.
2.    Refreshment Serve Execution
•    Identify new refreshment occasions and emerging consumer needs within the Suntory refreshment strategy framework. 
•    Act as a builder by creating refreshment demand where it does not exist, influencing on-premise operators, bartenders and customers to adopt new refreshment concepts and consumption occasions.
•    Execute refreshment tests to identify the combinations of serve, occasion, activation, and account conditions that drive the strongest business impact and help to deliver scalable formulas that will help drive the total refreshment strategy in the US. Ensure each test contributes to building the SGS refreshment growth model.
•    Prioritize opportunities with the greatest potential business impact.
•    Gather consumer feedback and performance data (where applicable) from pilots. Translate consumer insights into actionable recommendations that can be scaled.
•    Quickly identify key drivers and learnings within tests and share back to the Refreshment Center of Excellence in a structured way. Brings field realities back to influence commercial strategy and decision-making

Qualifications

Demonstrated passion for creating new business opportunities where no established playbook exists.  Comfortable operating in ambiguity and building new capabilities from the ground up. Energized by opportunity creation rather than managing existing business.
•    Proven ability to generate demand by influencing customer behavior and creating new consumption occasions.  Experience launching new programs, concepts, categories, or solutions. Strong ability to identify unmet consumer needs and untapped customer opportunities.
•    Experience running pilots or market tests. Ability to form hypotheses, test quickly, learn rapidly, and adapt based on evidence.
•    Results oriented with a strong execution mindset.  Highly self-motivated and comfortable working independently in the field. Persistent in overcoming customer resistance and operational challenges.
•    Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel.
•    4-5 years of experience in the beverage, spirits, beer or hospitality industry, with on-premise experience preferred.
Demonstratable Leadership Skills
•    Engagement – dynamic individual with the ability to build trust quickly and communicate a strategy.
•    Influence – ability to guide key stakeholders who potentially have competing agendas, focus on gaining alignment, not agreement.
•    Negotiation – engaging in a dialogue designed to drive an outcome which satisfies various interests.
•    Prioritization – effectively identifies and communicates high value opportunities
•    Simplification – minimizes low value activities to maximize effectiveness and impact of their team.
•    Collaboration – experience managing projects or initiatives across multiple functions.
•    Orchestration – proven track record of coordinating a group of individuals around a shared ambition and holding them accountable for performance.

The salary range for this role is $80,000-$110,000 along with an annual bonus, 401K match, profit sharing, and medical and wellness benefits. The salary range is commensurate with the candidate’s location, experience, and skillset. The range will vary if outside of this location.