Roelien Von Molendorff

• No. 2 Worldwide Producer of Wines and Spirits. Pernod Ricard is a global leader in the wine and spirits industry, owning 16 of the Top 100 Spirits Brands worldwide and boasting one of the most prestigious and comprehensive brand portfolios in the market. With over 19,000 employees operating across 160+ markets, the Group includes Jameson, the 3rd largest whiskey brand in the world.
• As Global Head of ANZ Brands, this role drives the global marketing strategy for Pernod Ricard Winemakers’ Australian and New Zealand COO portfolios. Focus areas include brand growth through ATL asset creation, memorable brand experiences, strategic marketing initiatives, and innovation. Collaboration with the Business Acceleration team identifies and capitalizes on opportunities to maximize the value of Australian and New Zealand wine brands across global markets.
• The role requires a deep understanding of business drivers, category dynamics, and consumer trends to influence the commercial agenda effectively. Responsibilities include defining the global vision and strategic and financial objectives for the portfolio while collaborating with senior management and key markets to implement strategies that deliver measurable growth and value creation.
• Key Achievements:
• Strategic Brand Development: Crafted and executed impactful brand positioning strategies, strengthening market presence and driving differentiation across multiple portfolios for long-term growth.
• High-Impact Partnerships & Campaigns: Led global partnerships, including a FIFA sponsorship, delivering a +25% sales uplift, +17% RSV growth, and 12.4 million media impressions, reaching 1.8 billion consumers and engaging new, diverse audiences.
• Brand Revitalization & Innovation: Delivered masterbrand and product campaigns that significantly boosted awareness, conversion rates, and sales volume, setting industry benchmarks.
• Global Reach & Market Leadership: Orchestrated global and regional campaigns, increasing brand visibility and consumer engagement while securing market leadership. Achievements include Jacob’s Creek earning accolades such as Decanter of the Year, Winery of the Year, Fan Favourite, and a #9 ranking among Most Valuable Wine and Champagne Brands globally.
• Strategic Negotiations & Growth: Negotiated high-value sponsorships and partnerships, enhancing brand presence and driving measurable growth across key markets.
• Portfolio Strategy: Oversaw brand identity, targeting, pricing, NPD, packaging, communication campaigns, and market/channel expansion, ensuring alignment with overall business objectives.
• Financial Management: Directed budget planning, aligning financial targets with cost-effective strategies.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Built strong relationships with suppliers, market representatives, and stakeholders across NZ, Australia, the US/Canada, the UK, and Asia, ensuring seamless execution and market success.
• Team Leadership: Managed and mentored a team of six, fostering innovation, collaboration, and a high-performance culture to ensure optimal execution of brand strategies.

• As Head of Pacific Wine and Global Comms Delivery, the role encompassed two core areas of responsibility:
• Global Leadership: Developed and executed the global consumer communications strategy, overseeing the creation of brand assets for Pernod Ricard Winemakers’ wine brands. Ensured cohesive and impactful communication that resonated with diverse consumer needs through collaboration with global markets.
• Pacific Market Leadership: Directed the strategic vision for the wine portfolio in the Pacific region, driving portfolio development and consumer marketing strategies to fuel growth and strengthen market presence.
• Key Achievements:
• Delivered significant revenue growth and market penetration, achieving $265k GM and 6.7K 9LE in FY23, with +380% volume growth through successful retailer activations and early product listings. Consistent week-on-week sales growth established strong brand traction in both traditional and emerging channels.
• Executed multi-channel consumer engagement and acquisition strategies (OOH, Social, PR, Influencers), reaching millions, including 85% of the target demographic. Generated 7,100 first-party data points, effectively engaging younger audiences such as millennials and Gen Z.
• Surpassed campaign performance KPIs, driving brand visibility and increasing consideration by +4% among targeted audiences. Achieved record performance in scan data, including 38k glass-in-hand moments across core campaigns.
• Expanded retail and distribution growth, achieving +47% growth in small-format distribution and +10% YOY growth in key retailers, driving both volume and market share.
• Defined and executed long-term in-market strategies for Pernod Ricard wine brands in collaboration with global markets, ensuring portfolio growth and alignment with business objectives.
• Developed best-in-class communication platforms, enhancing brand visibility and ensuring consistency across ANZ and global markets.
• Enabled the team to manage the preparation, development, implementation, and evaluation of brand plan activities, ensuring strong execution and measurable impact.
• Enhanced consumer insight rigor by working closely with the Insights team to translate insights into actionable strategies, optimizing brand performance.
• Ensured budget adherence while maintaining expenditure within pre-determined limits and delivering ROI across key initiatives.
• Built strong relationships with stakeholders, including key suppliers and market representatives across NZ, Australia, the US/Canada, UK, and Asia, fostering collaboration and strategic success.
• Cultivated a dynamic, entrepreneurial, and collaborative team culture, promoting high performance and innovation within the organization.

Key Achievements

• Market Leadership: Defined and executed a strategic roadmap for Jameson across SSA markets, driving growth through culturally aligned strategies. Established Jameson as the No. 1 whiskey in Nigeria and positioned Jameson Select Reserve as the leading super-premium whiskey in South Africa, surpassing Hennessy with the award-winning “Asiye” campaign.
• Content Marketing Excellence: Developed and implemented market-relevant communication strategies that boosted awareness and brand equity in key markets, including South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Angola, Ghana, Botswana, and Mozambique. Strengthened global-local collaboration by actively engaging Jameson’s Global Marketing Team to optimize content strategies and share best practices.
• Integrated Campaign Success: Delivered localized, market-specific campaigns aligned with global brand strategy, achieving consistency while driving brand salience and market dominance through initiatives like Jameson’s 360° campaigns.
• Agency Leadership: Managed creative and media agency partnerships to ensure seamless execution, efficiency, and adherence to budget controls, maximizing campaign impact.
• Consumer-Centric Insights: Leveraged deep cultural and media insights to craft tailored content that addressed local market challenges, enhancing relevance and consumer connection.
• Innovation and Creativity: Researched and deployed innovative content formats to create impactful, memorable campaigns that resonated strongly with diverse local audiences.

Beer and Cider Company
A global leader in brewing with over 85,000 employees across 88 countries, the company is the world’s 2nd largest brewer, publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange, and home to the most premium beer brand globally.

Key Achievements:

• Spearheaded brand growth, increasing Heineken Zambia’s market share from 0.08% to 2% within one year and boosting awareness for Heineken and Amstel by 80%, reaching 6 million targeted consumers weekly.
• Enhanced portfolio profitability by implementing a cost-optimization model that reduced costs by 30%, setting a best-in-class benchmark for comparable markets.
• Designed and executed immediate, medium, and long-term brand strategies aligned with regional and global objectives, laying the groundwork for sustained top-line growth and profitability.
• Delivered on marketing and operational objectives through innovation, activations, pricing strategies, sponsorships, and communication plans, while driving team development and fostering a culture of excellence.
• Managed 360° communication plans, including ATL/BTL activities and activation calendars, to elevate brand awareness, equity, and topline growth.
• Collaborated with global teams to adapt strategies and assets for the Zambian market, ensuring alignment with local consumer needs and business objectives.
• Leveraged data-driven decision-making through financial metrics like P&L, ZBB costing, and GP net by brand/SKU, refining strategies to maximize ROI.
• Directed creative, BTL, and media agencies to execute high-impact campaigns that drove brand salience and equity for Heineken and Amstel.
• Championed Heineken Leadership Behaviors, shaping strategy, challenging norms, simplifying processes, fostering collaboration, and building trust to inspire and develop high-performing teams.

Key Achievements:

20% Growth in Revenue and Profitability: Delivered 662khl’s and R994 million in additional revenue by expanding Heineken SA’s portfolio from 4 to 9 brands across the super-premium, premium, mainstream, and cider segments.

Key initiatives included:

• Profitable Growth: Launched 12-pocket crates for beer and cider (Project Greenback) and implemented renovation projects across the portfolio.
• Top-line Growth: Launched Soweto Gold, the first local mainstream brand, and expanded the premium portfolio with Amstel Radler, Sol/MGD, Heineken Blade, and Desperados. Introduced Strongbow and Fox Dry Apple Cider to establish a sustainable cider portfolio and protect Heineken against competitors like Corona, Budweiser, and Stella Artois.

· 15% Profit Contribution: Drove consistent profit growth through a 2–5-year beverage innovation pipeline that extended beyond beer and cider.

· Brand & Communication Strategy: Developed and briefed trade marketing and sales teams on brand strategy, execution priorities, and go-to-market plans to ensure successful market penetration.

· Budget & Cross-Functional Leadership: Managed a R120 million budget for Soweto Gold, MGD, Sol, Desperados, and front-end innovation. Led a cross-functional team of 12 people dedicated to innovation.

· Innovation Leadership:

• Spearheaded brand-led innovation projects, driving share growth and brand equity objectives.
• Developed platform and segment innovation strategies, delivering a validated pipeline of new concepts.
• Led the development and execution of a 5-year innovation strategy, aligning it with portfolio objectives and translating it into actionable opportunities.

· Innovation & Portfolio Strategy:

• Led innovation, renovation, and CVE (Consumer Value Engineering) projects, managing all related initiatives.
• Collaborated with Commercial, Finance, Insights, and R&D to ensure alignment with business strategies.
• Developed and executed pricing strategies for innovation projects.

· Training & Development: Implemented training programs on the innovation process, fostering a culture of continuous innovation in beer, cider, and beverages. Developed LONO short and long-term strategies for Heineken SA.

· Brand Incubator Model: Created a brand incubator model for developing, launching, and nurturing new brands within a controlled environment for one year before transitioning them to traditional brand te

• Front-End Innovation: Drive topline growth and profitability by identifying and developing white space opportunities and category expansions.
• Innovation Gate Process: Manage innovation gate stages, collaborating with executive and global stakeholders to ensure alignment and timely execution.
• New Brand Development: Lead end-to-end new brand creation, including identifying market opportunities, leveraging consumer insights, designing products and packaging, defining brand positioning, and executing launch plans.
• 5-Year Innovation Strategy: Develop and execute a 5-year innovation strategy and pipeline to sustain long-term brand growth.
• Budget Management: Control budgets for new brand development and provide consulting support to brand teams on innovation initiatives.
• B2C E-Commerce Strategy: Develop and implement indirect B2C e-commerce strategies to enhance brand growth and consumer engagement.
• Profit and Market Share Growth: Achieved an 11% increase in SAB’s premium share, boosting profitability through successful innovation efforts.

• Develop TTL Plan: Create an integrated plan encompassing customer, consumer, internal stakeholders, merchandise, activation, and sampling strategies to achieve brand objectives
• Budget Management: Oversee a budget of R10 million to ensure effective resource allocation and execution
• Team Development: Implement strategies to develop the team and drive the successful delivery of brand objectives
• Marketing Strategy: Design and execute effective local and national marketing strategies, ensuring alignment with broader business goals
• Innovation Strategy: Translate portfolio and brand strategies into actionable innovation opportunities and establish a 3-year innovation pipeline
• Brand Strategy Development: Lead the creation of brand strategy, architecture, and positioning to support NPD solution requirements
• NPD Execution: Develop and execute NPD solutions, ensuring timely and on-budget delivery of product innovations
• Innovation Project Leadership: Drive and deliver innovation projects (liquid, packaging) from insights generation to concept, liquid development, marketing mix approval, and post-launch evaluation
• Cross-functional Team Leadership: Lead multidisciplinary innovation teams through the development, testing, planning, implementation, and embedding of innovation projects
• Innovation Planning & Governance: Define NPD back-planning, lead and manage projects through the SMART Gate process and required governance forums
• This approach ensures timely delivery of high-quality innovation projects that align with business objectives and drive brand growth.

• Marketing Strategy: Design and implement local and national marketing strategies to drive brand growth.
• Budget Management: Manage financial budgets to ensure optimal resource allocation and campaign success.
• Campaign Execution: Deliver campaigns on time and within budget, achieving all performance goals.
• Strategy Development & Monitoring: Develop, implement, monitor, and review marketing strategies regionally and nationally, ensuring alignment with business objectives.
• Innovation Impact: Drove 79% (243k HL) of brand volume through innovation, expanding the convenience package mix and attracting new users.
• Multipack contributed 32% (62k HL, R44m profit) of growth.
• Premium Share Growth: Increased premium share from 31% to 42%, strengthening brand positioning.
• Volume Growth: Reversed NRB volume decline, achieving 6% growth.
• Budget Oversight: Managed R20m ($240m) budget to launch innovation initiatives, driving revenue growth.
• Efforts directly enhanced brand performance, increasing market share and revenue.

• ITEG Focus: Aligned brand and channel objectives, providing clear direction and prioritization for the sales force and customers, resulting in improved execution consistency across all channels.
• Guidance on Prioritization: Delivered precise prioritization using AMPPS levers and zones within each COT, contributing to a 15% increase in sales execution effectiveness at the "moment of truth."
• Customer Loyalty: Collaborated with customers to enhance Customer Loyalty Index scores, achieving a 12% improvement and strengthening long-term partnerships.
• Sales Execution Competence: Elevated execution capabilities of Sales Managers and Team Leaders in In-Trade Execution (ITEG), including segmentation, visual AMPPS, TSP, and COT calendars, driving a 10% increase in on-shelf availability and adherence to Demand More principles.
• Channel Manager Collaboration: Partnered with Channel Managers to develop bold actions and set national priorities by COT, maintaining ITEG relevance and boosting execution efficiency by 20%.
• Training Initiatives: Designed informal channel training by COT, enhancing skill sets and improving sales outcomes by 8%.
  

This structured approach significantly enhanced execution efficiency, customer engagement, and sales impact

• Business Plan Development: Increased SAB’s market share from 85% to 95% and improved customer loyalty scores from 80% to 90%.
• In-Trade Execution: Executed brand/channel plans and implemented sales strategies to drive growth.
• Audit Management: Conducted 30–40 in-trade audits weekly to ensure execution and compliance.
• Promotion Strategy: Developed promotions that boosted share and volume per outlet, improving brand performance.
• Budget Management: Managed R5m budget, ensuring optimal allocation to support sales initiatives and deliver results.
• Efforts drove significant gains in market share, customer loyalty, and sales volume.