Director, HORECA Channel Strategy

Overview

In this role, you will define how Coca-Cola grows the HORECA (Local Food service) business by setting a channel strategy grounded in consumer insights, operator needs, and system capabilities. You will establish strategic priorities to increase beverage transactions through assortment, activation, and customer expansion. Working across strategy and execution, this role is highly cross-functional and partners with teams such as Channel Commercial Strategy, RGM, Route to Market, and Franchise to develop scalable, high-impact solutions.

Channel Growth Strategy and Commercialization

• Set the HORECA channel vision, commercial strategy, and execution priorities to drive beverage transaction growth through assortment, activation, and customer expansion.
• Lead annual business planning, ensuring a holistic plan with clear, measurable sources of growth that are enabled by digital and frontline tools and capabilities.
• Align resources, investments, and tools to high-impact opportunities, managing budgets and deployment to maximize commercial outcomes.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as the central point of integration of HORECA strategy, translating cross-functional inputs into a single, aligned channel plan.
• Lead cross-functional planning and decision-making discussions to focus on the most important HORECA growth opportunities.
• Influence without direct authority by building strong relationships and creating clear alignment on accountabilities and top priorities for the channel.
• Communicate strategy clearly and consistently through internal and System Alignment routines.

Market Insights and Performance

• Build strong understanding of Bottler, Distributor, and Customer operations through market engagement to identify execution barriers and growth opportunities.
• Partner with Franchise and Bottlers to align strategy with market realities and enable consistent execution.
• Define success metrics to evaluate performance, address opportunities, and scale proven strategies.

• Strategic leader who connects vision to execution
• Strong integrator who builds alignment across teams
• Growth-oriented, adaptable, and comfortable with ambiguity
• Clear communicator who simplifies complexity

Education:

• Minimum:
  Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Marketing, Operations, or related field
• Preferred:
  Master’s degree (MBA or equivalent) in Business, Strategy, Marketing, Operations, or related field

Professional

Experience:

• 8+ years of progressive experience in commercial strategy, channel management, food service, or sales leadership within food service, CPG, or beverage industries.
• Proven track record of developing and leading channel or commercial strategy within food service, on-premise, or CPG environments
• Strong ability to translate consumer and operator insights into clear strategies and execution priorities that drive growth.
• Understanding of route to market, pricing, portfolio, and activation levers in local or independent customer channels.
• Clear, concise communicator with strong analytical skills and track record of delivering scalable system-ready solutions
• Exposure to both physical (in-outlet) and digital/commercial activation plans.

• Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving skills; ability to connect high-level vision to on-the-ground execution.
• Demonstrated ability to simplify complex topics, communicate clearly, and influence diverse stakeholders.
• High level of curiosity and willingness to learn.
• Continuous improvement mindset.
• Ability to work with data to draw business insights, inform decisions, and track progress against KPIs.

Skills:

Leadership;
Results-Oriented;
Sales Process;
Account Management;
Customer Relationship Management (CRM);
Sales Management;
Marketing;
Pitch Presentations;
Consultative Sales Management;
Business Insights;
Sales Forecasting;
Communication;
National Account Sales;
Customer Service Management;
Decision Making;
Business Development;
Negotiation