Sales Director, Wholesale, On-Trade and Field Sales

Build your career at Sazerac! With almost 400 years of rich history, Sazerac Company has thrived as an independent, American family-owned company with operations in the United States and around the world. Since the 2000s, Sazerac has averaged double digit growth every year! Sazerac Company produces and markets the most award-winning bourbons and whiskeys in the world, including Buffalo Trace, Pappy Van Winkle, Eagle Rare, Blanton’s, Traveller, and Sazerac Rye. Additionally, Sazerac owns many popular brands across a range of spirits, including Fireball, Svedka, Wheatley, BuzzBallz, Southern Comfort, Seagram’s V.O., Myers’s, Goldschläger, Parrot Bay, 99 Brand, and Platinum Vodka.

Sazerac UK is delivering explosive growth in the UK spirits and RTD market, now ranking in the top 10 producers in the UK. 

Sazerac UK is seeking a commercially driven and strategic Sales Director, Wholesale, On-Trade and Field Sales, to lead the development and execution of our UK sales and trade strategy. This role will be accountable for driving our profitable growth, market share, distribution, and customer partnerships across the UK's wholesale, on trade and prestige retailers and the leadership of an expanding direct and indirect field sales team. 

The Sales Director, Wholesale, On-Trade and Field Sales will own sales strategy, customer strategy, sales performance, and commercial execution across wholesale, on trade and prestige customers. Reporting into the UK Managing Director, working closely with Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, global support teams and as a member of the UK Leadership Team, this individual will ensure Sazerac's portfolio delivers sustainable, accelerated growth while strengthening our position within the highly competitive UK spirits and RTD category. 

The successful candidate will bring a strong track record of leading high-performing sales teams, managing complex customer relationships, and delivering ambitious volume, revenue and profit results within the FMCG or alcoholic beverage industry. 

Key Responsibilities:

Commercial Strategy & Growth 

• Develop and execute the UK sales and trade strategy aligned with Sazerac's business objectives and growth ambitions. 
• Deliver annual and long-range plans for volume, net sales revenue, market share, distribution, and gross profit growth. 
• Identify and unlock opportunities to accelerate growth across Sazerac's current and future portfolio of strategic and priority brands. 
• Build customer and channel strategies that support both short-term performance and long-term brand development. 
• Lead annual business planning processes to develop and deliver robust growth plans across all customers, achieving annual targets. 
• Drive innovation listings, range expansion, and category growth opportunities. 

Customer Leadership 

• Own executive-level relationships with key customers. 
• Lead and coach team to negotiate on joint business plans, customer investment, pricing, promotions, distribution, and commercial agreements to deliver annual targets. 
• Establish Sazerac as a trusted strategic partner with key account customers. 
• Drive best-in-class customer engagement and collaboration. 
• Influence category growth through strong insights, data, and customer-specific strategies. 
• Represent Sazerac in external customer meetings, industry events, and strategic forums. 

Revenue, Profit & Performance Management 

• Deliver agreed volume, revenue, gross profit, and market share targets. 
• Manage and optimize trade investment to ensure maximum return on investment. 
• Monitor business performance and implement corrective actions where required. 
• Develop accurate forecast processes and demand planning inputs. 
• Lead pricing, promotional, and assortment strategies to deliver profitability targets. 
• Ensure commercial decisions deliver short term and long term growth targets. 

Team Leadership & Talent Development 

• Build, lead, coach, and develop a high-performing sales team. 
• Create a culture of accountability, ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement. 
• Establish clear objectives, effective development plans, and succession plans across the team. 
• Conduct regular performance reviews and coaching sessions. 
• Partner with HR to attract, hire, and retain top commercial talent. 
• Foster an inclusive and engaging team environment that encourages growth and high performance. 

Cross-Functional Leadership 

• Partner closely with Marketing to translate brand strategies into customer-winning activation plans. 
• Collaborate with Finance to deliver profitable growth and manage commercial investments effectively. 
• Work with Supply Chain to ensure strong service levels, forecasting accuracy, and inventory management. 
• Support innovation launches and portfolio expansion initiatives. 
• Act as a key member of the UK leadership team, contributing to overall business strategy and decision-making. 
• Exploit Global centres of excellence to enhance team capability and return from customer investment. 

Commercial Excellence 

• Implement disciplined sales processes and performance management routines. 
• Drive data-led decision making through customer, category, and market analysis. 
• Develop and enhance reporting, forecasting, and sales effectiveness tools. 
• Ensure best practices are shared and implemented across the organization. 
• Identify opportunities to simplify processes and improve organizational effectiveness.  

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Marketing, Commercial Management, Finance, or related field. 

• Extensive experience in Customer Director / Sales Director roles within FMCG .

• A proven leadership track record, with the ability to coach and inspire a high-performance team.

• Strong P&L ownership and commercial delivery track record .

• Strong commercial acumen, with a deep understanding of grocery channel.

• Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and influencing skills. 

• Advanced analytical and strategic planning capabilities. 

• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment. 

• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence at executive level. 

• Willingness to travel across the UK as required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience within the spirits or beverage industry.  

• Experience working within a matrixed or multinational organization.

• Experience leading a direct or indirect field sales team.