Head of Spirits - London

Moët Hennessy, the Wines and Spirits Division of LVMH, regroups twenty-seven Maisons, many of which have been around for centuries, while other are just starting their journey. Our vision is to lead the future of luxury Wines and Spirits from nature to communities.

Located in the most prestigious terroirs around the world, we have unique savoir-faire from winemaking to art de vivre, hospitality, and brick-and-clicks retail management to craft exceptional experiences for consumers.

For many years, with the ambition to pass on a better world to future generations, we have been committed to the Living Soils Living Together program structured around four key commitments: Regenerating our Soils, Mitigating our Climate Impact, Engaging Society, and Empowering our People. Moët Hennessy is proud to promote a diverse, equitable and inclusive working environment for all.

As an employer, Moët Hennessy offers unique journeys throughout its global ecosystem, opportunities to develop new skills and grow professionally.

The Head of Spirits mission is to create long-term value for the Spirits Brands (Glenmorangie, Ardbeg, Belvedere, Volcan, Whistle Pig, Eminente and Sir Davis) in the UK by implementing elevated, consumer-centric, and locally relevant brand strategies, as well as championing executional excellence of all programming and activations in line with the Maison’s vision and guidelines and MHUK’s business goals.

The primary focus of this role is to build Spirits into a strong second pillar for MHUK.

They will be a key member of the wider UK Marketing Community, leveraging their strong spirits background to inspire, whilst leading the Spirits brand team.

They will at all times act as Brand Ambassador vis-a-vis trade partners, press, VIPs and other friends of the brand.

STRATEGY

• Lead the development of clear annual brand plan /5-year plans, defining strategic choices to meet brand and business targets and in line with Maison (global) strategy. Support the choices with defined KPI’s.
• Manage the brand portfolio strategies by developing appropriate synergies and differentiation when needed.
• Establish strong relationships with Maison and Global Spirits teams to influence Maison strategies and the global agenda to further support the UK strategic direction.
• Ensure a strong understanding of the target consumers, market dynamics, competitive landscape and strategic channels and key customers.
• Together with Head of Communications, build the role the brands play in UK culture to ensure impact and resonance.
• Ownership of the brands P&L. Understand and respond to the drivers of brand performance, working in partnership with the Commercial & Finance teams to define the strategy and deliver strong commercial plans.
• Collaborate with the Sales and Finance team set channel objectives ensuring the brands distribution across all strategic channels and customers in the UK, identifying growth areas.
• Work with Commercial Planning and Revenue Growth Management teams to identify strong revenue and profit opportunities to fuel commercial plans.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

• Collaborate with the Insights team to to maintain ongoing awareness of brand health, consumer insights, trends, category data (IWSR, CGA etc.) disseminating the insights into action and sharing with key stakeholders to inform strategies and activations.
• Monitor brand performance using sales, financial, market and consumer data and recommend appropriate action where required.
• Own marketing performance versus KPIs, ensuring effective evaluation of activity to achieve expected return on investment, identifying learnings and future optimisations.
• Support the Brand Managers in the management of the brand A&P budget on a monthly and quarterly basis to land on target at year end.
• Fulfil all internal reporting requirements. Work with Sales, Revenue Growth Management and Finance teams to deliver insightful business reviews with Maison or MH Central.

PROGRAMMES / BRAND ACTIVATION

• Be the go-to person for consumer activations targeting the consumer of the Spirits brands.
• Support the brand teams to deliver elevated local experiences using 360* thinking, that resonate the brand DNA and purpose, inspired by the global brand platforms.
• Support the brand teams to, together with sales, develop channel-relevant and consumer-centric activities that drive rate of sale or support key visibility opportunities of the highest quality execution.
• Be accountable for the brand team’s delivery of exceptional experiences that surprise and delight our customers and consumers. Delivering excellence from concept creation to agency briefing, implementation and evaluation.
• Ensure all programmes are delivered on time, within agreed budget and to the expected level of excellence in accordance with the brand values.

Personal & interpersonal skills:

• Strong leadership skills, thriving on challenges.
• Passionate, creative and with drive for innovation
• Excellent interpersonal communication and presentation skills and experience collaborating with multiple internal and external teams and navigating cultural differences.
• Strong organisational skills & attention to detail.
• Proactive and solution driven, a mindset which sees and seizes opportunities for the brands.
• Able to adapt to the ever-changing environment with strong sense of perseverance & resilience.

Technical & professional skills

• Numerate and commercially aware
• Financial & business acumen
• Digitally savvy
• WSET Spirits Level 2/3, or relevant sommelier/trade experience, is a plus.