The Moodie Davitt Report -The Moodie Davitt Report

Bacardi today announced a leadership change at its Global Travel Retail (GTR) business with Leila Stansfield being named Managing Director, effective January 2023. She will take over from the much-respected Vinay Golikeri who has been appointed to the key role of Managing Director, India and Neighbouring Countries.

Bacardi described Stansfield as an experienced global travel retail veteran, having previously held roles as GTR Finance Director and GTR Marketing Director during a 12-year career with the group. She will be the first female lead for the division. She is currently On-Trade Sales Director, Bacardi UK & Ireland.

Bacardi Regional President AMEA & GTR Vijay Subramaniam said, “Vinay has played a pivotal role in leading and developing our global travel retail business. The last few years have been particularly difficult for this channel, and Vinay has successfully navigated the challenges of the pandemic.

Leila Stansfield: Set to help Bacardi Global Travel Retail seize a “transformational opportunity” in the channel

“He has spearheaded our ambitions as a front-runner in the omnichannel revolution sweeping travel retail by partnering with retail customers, introducing significant innovation in shopper experience and our brand portfolio. I would like to thank Vinay for his unwavering drive and positive leadership and to wish him every success in his new role.

“Meanwhile, we are delighted to welcome Leila Stansfield back to GTR.  She is a driving force in our senior leadership team and brings valuable commercial acumen from across several aspects of our business. This is a time of transformational opportunity for global travel retail and Bacardi is deeply committed for the long term.

“With a passion for people – our customers, consumers and for unlocking potential in her team – Leila will be a tremendous leader to move GTR into the new omnichannel era, maximising the unrivaled dynamics in terms of strategic brand-building and commercial opportunity as well as driving our ESG goals – a key objective in our strategic ambitions for global travel retail.”

Commenting on his time in Bacardi GTR, Golikeri said, “It’s been such a privilege to lead the Bacardi global travel retail business, and I would especially like to call out the most magnificent team of talented people I’ve worked with and to thank them for their fearless commitment and passion.

“These individuals have delivered phenomenal work in the toughest of times, enabling us to reinvent our business in global travel retail and to emerge stronger with new possibilities, notably in forging omnichannel solutions that are the bedrock of the new era in this remarkable market.”

Stansfield commented, “I am very excited to be returning to global travel retail in January 2023, especially at a time when the market looks set to move towards full recovery. I look forward to reconnecting with our retail partners and stakeholders to accelerate and deliver mutually beneficial strategies for growth.”

The Moodie View: Vinay Golikeri has done an outstanding job in leading Bacardi GTR through the rollercoaster ride that the channel has represented since his promotion to the role in April 2019.

His out and out consumer-centric view was neatly captured in an interview with me he did in January 2020, noting, “Our driving force in GTR is consumers – they are at the heart of our strategy. We’re in the business of inspiring memorable experiences, not just selling bottles and cases.”

From those early 2019 days Golikeri and his team set about delivering those experiences with a host of entertainment-driven in-store digital innovations and a focus on channel exclusivity, personalisation and premiumisation. Take a search through The Moodie Davitt Report archives and you’ll see some of the most vibrant activations and installations of any category in recent times and some of the most advanced omnichannel thinking.

And then… well we all know what happened next. Along came a certain coronavirus, prompting the most prolonged and painful crisis in sector history. A global pandemic that numbered the travel industry as one of its prime victims. A different test of leadership followed, one with no template and one conducted amid a wildly fluctuating business environment over more than two years. A test of human as well as commercial and corporate qualities.

“He is articulate, warm, caring but with a clear strategy and vision of world-class brand execution,” a key Bacardi GTR business partner says of him.

As Subramaniam well notes, Golikeri navigated those tempestuous seas with a combination of calm, flexibility and foresight, the last-named trait enabling Bacardi GTR to rebound quickly in the channel despite the well-documented supply chain challenges that face all suppliers. He also played a lead role in both understanding and quickly seizing the Hainan opportunity once the island province added spirits and wine to the offshore duty free mix in July 2020.

Targeting tastemakers in China: Whiskey enthusiasts at CDF Mova Mall in Hainan, where the new Teeling Whiskey – The Vintage Reserve Collection launched exclusively with China Duty Free Group earlier this year

He has now landed the biggest of roles, serving his native India and neighbouring countries. It’s a job that this near 20-year servant of Bacardi, who started with the company as a Marketing Manager for the group’s rum portfolio in Delhi in 2003, will rightly cherish and richly deserves.