Inverroche Distillery is the market leading Premium Gin brand in South Africa and is part of the Pernod Ricard group, the world's number 2 Spirits and Wine company.Part of the scope of my role as Managing Director Inverroche, is to sit on the Pernod Ricard Africa Executive Team, responsible for strategic leadership and operational execution of the Pernod Ricard business in Africa.As Managing Director Inverroche, I am directly responsible for all Inverroche functional teams, with a specific focus on:- Building a long-term (10 Year) vision for the business, including making recommendations on the resources required (CAPEX and Operational) in order to achieve this vision.- Diversifying revenue sources, including developing and executing a structured plan to grow the business outside of South Africa. This involves identifying attractive markets for growth, engaging with potential distribution partners in these markets, and managing and measuring these distributors against agreed targets and KPI's- Overseeing the creation of Brand Marketing Campaigns that ensure our brand equity is built in a long-term and sustainable way- Developing and implementing a vision for the Inverroche Brand Home, helping to build brand love with Consumers through world-class experiences and authentic brand storytelling.- Operational management including capacity upgrades and strategic inventory planning to allow the business to meet our stretch growth targets- Health & Safety, including the implementation of plans, processes and routines to ensure the the target of zero Lost Time Accidents on site is achieved- Sustainability & Responsibility, including putting in place strategic plans to reduce our Carbon Footprint (renewable energy; localisation of sourcing); Expand our Circular Making initiatives (turn production waste into value add products) and Invest in our Local Community (setting up community owned businesses as suppliers)

Inverroche Distillery is the market leading Premium Gin brand in South Africa and is part of the Pernod Ricard group. Pernod Ricard acquired a majority stake in Inverroche in 2019, and I was seconded to Inverroche as the Chief Financial Officer, and key conduit between the two organisations, responsible for the following:- Change Management through the onboarding of Inverroche into the Pernod Ricard global structure. This including group reporting (financial; operational and management); human resources (payroll and benefits, including recommendation on P&B alignment and changes); and strategic (budgeting; forecasting and capacity expansion recommendations to meet future demand).- Consolidation, co-ordination and managing of all financial activities for Inverroche. Managing the financial impact of decisions made within the company and ensuring compliance with financial reporting obligations.- Recommending actions that improve the company’s profitability and capacity to reach financial targets.- Responsibility for the HR function, including a headcount of 55 employees.- As part of the senior management team, had input into the overall strategy and management of the company

I am responsible for the Strategic Planning agenda within Sub-Saharan Africa, working with the central management team and regional Business Units in identifying, mapping and developing strategic business opportunities.KPI’s include:• Defining & implementing the Geo-Expansion strategy across Sub-Saharan Africa, performing regular reviews of the priority markets to investigate.• Make recommendations to PR SSA management team regarding future market development.• Perform market studies and build appropriate ‘Go-to-Market’ models, analyzing RTM, competitors, consumers & customers through data analysis & interviews.• Co-ordinate & Manage the 3 Year Strategic Planning process within Sub-Saharan Africa, acting as the key management entity liaison between the region and the business units.• Ensure that the PR SSA 3 Year plan is built in collaboration with the relevant stakeholder of the Central Team.• Support business units in building their 3 Year Strategic Plan, constructively challenging where required, and ensuring that affiliate plans are aggregated into the overall PR SSA Strategic Plan.• Develop a monitoring and evaluation KPI scorecard to measure progression against the key transversal SSA initiatives – regularly reporting back to SSA management on the results.• Project management of strategic Pan-African initiatives, responsible for ensuring that project run on time and within budget, and that any issues are flagged timeously to senior management.• Management and co-ordination of group-wide projects across the SSA business units.• Ad hoc projects and studies, including Business Intelligence and Competitive Intelligence.• Responsible for ensuring that the SSA Strategic Planning agenda is clearly communicated and understood across the Sub-Saharan Africa region.

In alignment with senior management, develop and drive the entire strategic planning agenda in Pernod Ricard South Africa, by systematically uncovering opportunities in and outside the defined budget planning and 4-year planning horizon. Develop and drive the vision and mission for Pernod Ricard South Africa in line with the corporate strategic goals and ensure alignment across functions.KPI's include:Map opportunities, classify and prioritise them and outline the resources in the organisation required to achieve targets.Identify game-changing ideas that can achieve sustainable competitive advantage.Develop and implement the strategic processes and methodologies to enable effective development of the strategic plan.Write clear business plans and investment cases to articulate new product ideas (NPD) and facilitate management decision making.Ensure coordination and buy in of Pernod Ricard South Africa Vision, Strategy and Battle grounds from Senior Leadership Team (SLT).Drive and assess Advertising & Promotion allocation decisions across the business in line with leading brand objectives.Assist in evaluation of longer term company performance against corresponding strategic plans (Budget, 4YP) and propose corrective measures.Ensure increased share of mind for strategic agenda in PRSA at Executive and SLT levels.Drive coordination and assessment (KPIs) of PRSA strategic projects playing active role in process, thought leadership and execution of Business Strategy.Coordinate NPD projects from initial idea generation to the business plan and final execution. Prepare where necessary updates to the Executive on key Strategic projects and ensure KPIs are tracked and aligned with business goals.Ensure that the Executive are provided with timely and accurate information to make business and strategic decisions.

 Oversee the delivery of the monthly management accounts, including P&L commentary and analysis on key brands and cost centres.  Cash management and reporting, monthly Balance Sheet Preparation, Treasury commentary and annual cash flow forecasting. Preparation of monthly board reports for the Executive. Manage the full Budget, Quarterly Forecast and 3 Year Strategic Planning process for PR South Africa, co-ordinating and critically analysing the input of functional departments Act as a business support partner to the key functional departments (Marketing, HR, Commercial and IT), providing analysis on critical business issues, and assisting with the budget and business planning process. Finance liaison between Pernod Ricard South Africa and the Pernod Ricard Sub-Saharan African and Europe finance teams. Prepare financial information and supporting documents for key external stakeholders, including banks, auditors and consultants. Development of financial tools and models to analysis customer profitability and return on Marketing and Trade Spend investment. Working with the Marketing and Commercial teams to develop business cases for new product roll-outs. Manage a team of three Reporting Analysts.

 Oversaw the delivery of the monthly management accounts for the directorate, and ensured that these were communicated to relevant staff.  Developed and maintained processes to ensure that directorate managers were reviewing their reports and taking action as required. Lead on the budget target setting for the directorate and took ownership of the financial targets. Oversaw and delivered the budget build. Worked with business managers on developing medium and long term business plans. This included financial projections, risk assessments and options appraisals. Worked with business managers in developing and presenting new business initiatives.  Regularly attended and presented papers at committee and board meetings.  Managed two Assistant Finance Managers and ensured that they were meeting their objectives. Had financial reporting responsibility for a subsidiary. This subsidiary was a Privately Financed Initiative/Public-Private Partnership (PFI/PPP).  Developed financial models to assist in understanding and operating the PFI. Liaised with, and had reporting responsibilities to the funders of the PFI contract.

 Worked with the Managing Director on budgets, product costings and cash flows. Met with Gulf Oil Marine Ltd representatives from Hong Kong and assisted the Managing Director in negotiating the terms of the exclusive license agreement for Southern Africa and Mauritius. Set up and oversaw Accounting and Reporting systems, including debtors, creditors, cashbooks, income statement and balance sheet. Established and maintained an audit trail and liaised with auditors where necessary. Set up and implemented stock reports, and inventory control procedures.

 Oversaw all accounting functions up to General Ledger level, including budgets, cash flow reports, cashbooks, journals, income statement and balance sheet. Provided Operational and Area Managers with divisional Profit and Loss reports, and made recommendations on improving their division’s financial performance. Travelled monthly to meet with Area Managers and discuss financial and operational aspects of their division. Financial Reporting to the Managing Director and Board. Managed daily cash flow, and ensured that all departments operated within their set budget. Prepared reports for, and met with Bank Manager and his staff on a regular basis. Controlled Fixed Asset Register and Inventory. Oversaw Human Resources department, and managed weekly and monthly payrolls. Met with important customers and put in place marketing and incentive programmes.  Established and maintained an audit trail for all work undertaken, and liaised with auditors as necessary.