Interim Project Manager Convenience

Ready to Drink (RTD) alcoholic beverages is the fastest growing segment in Spirits. Many players from the spirits, beer, and soft drinks industry are entering RTDs as it is proven to capture new occasions, hence drive incremental business, but importantly also acting as a recruitment tool for Spirits brands. RTDs with its lower ABV (Alcohol by volume) levels are also well placed to meet the needs of health-conscious consumers looking for lower calorie options for a growing day time consumption occasion. The growth is coming from the premium segment where The Absolut Company (TAC) plays with its brand portfolio, and hence is well suited to capture a significant share of the market. 

The internal demand for RTDs is building up fast, so the team needs to identify how to best serve the market needs with an entrepreneurial mindset while ensuring we are set up for global scale. In TAC, the Operations expertise is much higher in Spirits than in RTD, and today’s processes are tailored for Spirits, not RTD, and therefore we are slow to market with innovation and testing. Being new in the RTD segment also means our volumes are small relative to established players in the can segment (soft drinks, beer, etc), so we need to find partners that are flexible and can do small production runs. 

 The Project Manager will be responsible for:

• Gate keeper for all RTD product (Absolut, Malibu and Kahlua RTD), packaging, equipment projects that requires Operations, SRA, Finance, and Legal
• Building effective processes and tools to drive speed and clarity to enable the cross functional RTD team to make right priorities and decisions based on solid business cases.
• Establishing an RTD Innovation Masterplan for the next 3-5 years.
• Support Convenience team on “back office” tasks, eg reports, analyses, tests. 
• Support Team Leader and TAC operations to build new partnerships with flavor houses, co-packers, and other suppliers to develop new products, packaging and bottling solutions that allow us to move fast but also with small production runs to pilot & scale.
• Support Team Leader and TAC operations to identify the obstacles we need to overcome in key countries/regions to build the future Operations set up recommendation.
• Support Team Leader in day-to-day management of USB licensing partnership in USA, make an evaluation and recommend strategy going forward.

The role will be partnering closely with TAC Operations team, Business Acceleration, Legal, Finance, and Strategy & Innovation team. The role will also be collaborating with a broader cross-functional team including the other Convenience team members and Lead Markets (Pernod Ricard Market Companies). Agencies and external suppliers/partners will also be contact points.

Key Parameters for success:
The role requires a highly motivated self-starter with strong leadership, analytical, organizational, and interpersonal skills as well as the ability to collaborate effectively across functions with passion and enthusiasm. Strong entrepreneurial ability to work around obstacles, and a bias for action with a pilot/learn/scale approach.

• Strong project management skills, with a track record of successfully leading projects
• Ability to build effective stage gate processes and tools.
• Strong analytical skills, and attention to detail
• Building collaborative relationships with internal functions and markets to create ownership which ultimately leads to motivated teams that achieve great results
• Self-driven problem solver, creative and proactive
• Flexible approach and an agile way of working

Key Capabilities:

• Project management of complex nature with many stakeholders
• Product commercialization experience
• Cross-functional teamwork
• This position requires occasional international travel.
• Operations/Supply chain from FMCG sector is a plus, ideally beverage company.
• Route To Market experience and working with distributors is a plus

 About the assignment
This is a full-time interim assignment, starting as soon as possible. The assignment is for 6 months with a possibility of extension. Location is at TACs office in Liljeholmen. 

 About The Absolut Company
The Absolut Company has the worldwide responsibility for the production, innovation and strategic marketing of Absolut Vodka, Malibu, Kahlúa, and Our/Vodka. Absolut Vodka is the world’s fifth largest spirits brand. Great brands are built by great people – and as a global industry leader, one vital ingredient has always remained at the heart of our company’s success: the passion and perseverance of our people. Our values: We are Together, we are Audacious, we are Committed – We Are TAC.