Bacardi as we speak introduced a management change at its World Journey Retail (GTR) enterprise with Leila Stansfield being named Managing Director, efficient January 2023. She is going to take over from the much-respected Vinay Golikeri who has been appointed to the important thing function of Managing Director, India and Neighbouring International locations.
Bacardi described Stansfield as an skilled world journey retail veteran, having beforehand held roles as GTR Finance Director and GTR Advertising and marketing Director throughout a 12-year profession with the group. She would be the first feminine lead for the division. She is presently On-Commerce Gross sales Director, Bacardi UK & Eire.
Bacardi Regional President AMEA & GTR Vijay Subramaniam stated, “Vinay has performed a pivotal function in main and growing our world journey retail enterprise. The previous few years have been significantly troublesome for this channel, and Vinay has efficiently navigated the challenges of the pandemic.
Leila Stansfield: Set to assist Bacardi World Journey Retail seize a “transformational alternative” within the channel
“He has spearheaded our ambitions as a front-runner within the omnichannel revolution sweeping journey retail by partnering with retail prospects, introducing important innovation in shopper expertise and our model portfolio. I wish to thank Vinay for his unwavering drive and constructive management and to want him each success in his new function.
“In the meantime, we’re delighted to welcome Leila Stansfield again to GTR. She is a driving power in our senior management workforce and brings beneficial business acumen from throughout a number of points of our enterprise. This can be a time of transformational alternative for world journey retail and Bacardi is deeply dedicated for the long run.
“With a ardour for individuals – our prospects, shoppers and for unlocking potential in her workforce – Leila shall be an amazing chief to maneuver GTR into the brand new omnichannel period, maximising the unmatched dynamics by way of strategic brand-building and business alternative in addition to driving our ESG objectives – a key goal in our strategic ambitions for world journey retail.”
Commenting on his time in Bacardi GTR, Golikeri stated, “It’s been such a privilege to guide the Bacardi world journey retail enterprise, and I might particularly prefer to name out essentially the most magnificent workforce of gifted individuals I’ve labored with and to thank them for his or her fearless dedication and keenness.
“These people have delivered phenomenal work within the hardest of instances, enabling us to reinvent our enterprise in world journey retail and to emerge stronger with new prospects, notably in forging omnichannel options which are the bedrock of the brand new period on this exceptional market.”
Stansfield commented, “I’m very excited to be returning to world journey retail in January 2023, particularly at a time when the market appears set to maneuver in direction of full restoration. I sit up for reconnecting with our retail companions and stakeholders to speed up and ship mutually helpful methods for development.”
The Moodie View: Vinay Golikeri has finished an impressive job in main Bacardi GTR by way of the rollercoaster journey that the channel has represented since his promotion to the function in April 2019.
His out and out consumer-centric view was neatly captured in an interview with me he did in January 2020, noting, “Our driving power in GTR is shoppers – they’re on the coronary heart of our technique. We’re within the enterprise of inspiring memorable experiences, not simply promoting bottles and instances.”
From these early 2019 days Golikeri and his workforce set about delivering these experiences with a bunch of entertainment-driven in-store digital improvements and a deal with channel exclusivity, personalisation and premiumisation. Take a search by way of The Moodie Davitt Report archives and also you’ll see among the most vibrant activations and installations of any class in latest instances and among the most superior omnichannel considering.
After which… nicely everyone knows what occurred subsequent. Alongside got here a sure coronavirus, prompting essentially the most extended and painful disaster in sector historical past. A world pandemic that numbered the journey trade as one among its prime victims. A distinct take a look at of management adopted, one with no template and one performed amid a wildly fluctuating enterprise surroundings over greater than two years. A take a look at of human in addition to business and company qualities.
“He’s articulate, heat, caring however with a transparent technique and imaginative and prescient of world-class model execution,” a key Bacardi GTR enterprise companion says of him.
As Subramaniam nicely notes, Golikeri navigated these tempestuous seas with a mix of calm, flexibility and foresight, the last-named trait enabling Bacardi GTR to rebound shortly within the channel regardless of the well-documented provide chain challenges that face all suppliers. He additionally performed a lead function in each understanding and shortly seizing the Hainan alternative as soon as the island province added spirits and wine to the offshore obligation free combine in July 2020.
Focusing on tastemakers in China: Whiskey fanatics at CDF Mova Mall in Hainan, the place the brand new Teeling Whiskey – The Classic Reserve Assortment launched solely with China Obligation Free Group earlier this 12 months
He has now landed the largest of roles, serving his native India and neighbouring nations. It’s a job that this close to 20-year servant of Bacardi, who began with the corporate as a Advertising and marketing Supervisor for the group’s rum portfolio in Delhi in 2003, will rightly cherish and richly deserves.