VP Sales (C-Store & Small Format) at Harvest Hill Beverage Company

Stamford, Connecticut, United States -

Full Time

Start Date

Immediate

Expiry Date

10 Jun, 26

Salary

0.0

Posted On

12 Mar, 26

Experience

10 year(s) or above

Remote Job

Yes

Telecommute

Yes

Sponsor Visa

Skills

P&L Management, Growth Strategy, Route-to-Market Optimization, Joint Business Planning, Distributor Management, Forecasting Rigor, Trade Investment Management, Talent Development, Cross-Functional Leadership, Commercial Planning, Execution Excellence, Customer Prioritization, Business Intelligence, Organizational Development, Sales Leadership, Portfolio Optimization

Industry

Manufacturing

Description

Harvest Hill Beverage Company is one of the largest independent manufacturers, distributors, and marketers of juices and juice drinks in North America, generating approximately $1 billion in annual revenue. The company originated with the acquisition of the Juicy Juice® brand from Nestlé in 2014 and has since grown into a leading independent beverage platform through the acquisition and development of iconic brands including SunnyD®, SunnyD Vodka Seltzer, HUG®, Fruit2O®, Daily’s Cocktails®, Veryfine®, Nutrament®, and Raptor Energy Drink®. Several of Harvest Hill’s brands have stood the test of time, with origins dating back more than 50 years. At the same time, the portfolio continues to evolve, benefitting from renewed cultural relevance, strong execution, and disciplined investment. Notably, SunnyD has doubled in size over the past five years, underscoring the strength of the brands and the company’s ability to drive sustained growth. Harvest Hill is owned by Castillo Hermanos, a long-term, strategic, family-owned enterprise, with Centerview Capital as a minority financial partner. Together, ownership has made significant investments across manufacturing, supply chain, business intelligence, talent, and infrastructure, creating a strong foundation for continued growth across channels and categories, including alcohol-adjacent and emerging beverage segments. Supported by this combined strategic and financial backing, the company has set ambitious long-term growth objectives, including a goal to approximately double the business over the next decade. The executive leadership team reflects an entrepreneurial, high-caliber group of leaders with deep industry experience. The culture balances strategic focus and capability-building with speed, agility, and a long-term orientation to decision-making and investment. Harvest Hill operates six highly automated manufacturing facilities across the United States and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, with more than 1,000 employees. The Vice President Sales, Convenience & Small Format is a critical commercial leadership role with full ownership of some of Harvest Hill’s most dynamic and underdeveloped growth channels. This leader will be responsible for setting strategy and driving execution across Convenience, Dollar/Value, Foodservice/K-12, Drug, Export, and Special Markets, representing more than $110 million in net sales today, with significant upside ahead. This is a rare opportunity to operate within a unique ownership structure that combines the long-term orientation of a strategic, privately held owner with the pace, focus, and value-creation discipline of a private equity partner. Together, this structure provides both stability and ambition supporting thoughtful, long-range investment while driving near-term execution and performance. This is not a maintenance role. It is a build-and-scale mandate. The channels under this leader’s remit are characterized by complexity, fragmented routes-to-market, and meaningful white space, particularly within convenience and foodservice. With substantial investment already made across the enterprise, this role offers the opportunity to shape channel strategy, strengthen execution, and unlock accelerated growth with real backing from ownership and the executive team. The Vice President will own the P&L for the division and currently lead a team of seven sales professionals. As Harvest Hill continues to evolve and integrate its global portfolio into the U.S. business over time, this role is expected to play an important leadership role in shaping future organizational structure and capability in a thoughtful, phased manner. This leader will build and develop a high-performing commercial organization, establish disciplined and scalable route-to-market strategies, deepen customer and distributor partnerships, and translate brand strength and cultural relevance into expanded presence across high-velocity, impulse-driven channels. This role reports to the President of Sales and is a key member of the Sales Leadership Team. Harvest Hill Beverage Company is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. This role is remote, with regular engagement across customers, distributors, and internal leadership. Commercial Leadership & Growth • Own full P&L responsibility for the Convenience, Value, and Foodservice businesses, driving profitable growth through disciplined planning, execution, and investment decisions. • Set and execute a clear multi-year growth strategy across channels, prioritizing white-space opportunities, customer expansion, distribution gains, and portfolio optimization. • Translate enterprise growth objectives into actionable commercial plans, balancing near-term performance with long-term value creation. • Establish clear performance metrics, forecasting rigor, and operating cadence to drive accountability and sustained results across a complex channel mix. Customer, Operator & Distributor Strategy • Build and maintain senior-level relationships with key retailers, operators, distributors, brokers, and export partners across channels. • Lead Joint Business Planning with priority customers, aligning on assortment strategy, pricing, promotion, activation, and mutual growth objectives. • Evaluate, design, and optimize distributor, broker, and DSD models to ensure effective coverage, execution excellence, and return on investment. • Drive disciplined customer prioritization, resource allocation, and investment decisions based on data, performance, and growth potential. Route-to-Market & Execution Excellence • Oversee all route-to-market models including national and regional distributors, redistributors, DSD partners, and export relationships. • Strengthen in-market execution standards across merchandising, distribution, inventory management, and promotional compliance. • Leverage business intelligence and analytics to inform decision-making, identify opportunities, and course-correct quickly. • Partner with Supply Chain and Operations to ensure service levels, inventory flow, and execution capabilities support growth objectives. Team Leadership & Organizational Development • Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing commercial organization, currently including a team of seven (and building), with a focus on talent development, succession planning, and capability building. • Build scalable organizational structure, processes, and ways of working that support continued growth and future integration opportunities. • Establish clear roles, responsibilities, KPIs, and performance expectations while fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and ownership. Cross-Functional & Enterprise Leadership • Serve as a key member of the Sales Leadership Team, partnering closely with Marketing, Revenue Growth Management, Finance, Supply Chain, and Operations. • Provide forward-looking market insight on channel dynamics, competitive activity, customer behavior, and emerging opportunities. • Act as a strong internal advocate for Convenience, Value, and Foodservice channels, ensuring their needs and opportunities are represented in enterprise planning and decision-making The optimal candidate brings a two-chapter career path. First, they developed strong commercial discipline in a scaled, branded CPG environment, building capability in sales strategy, joint business planning, trade investment management, forecasting, and execution. Second, they moved into a smaller, agile growth environment and demonstrated the ability to build and scale, strengthening route-to-market, expanding underdeveloped channels, and developing teams. This role requires a leader who balances speed and ownership with disciplined commercial planning. Channel Leadership and Scope Fit • Versatile leadership experience across convenience, small format, foodservice and/or value or special markets. Optimal focus in two or more of the channels. • Track record building underdeveloped channels through targeted customer strategies, distribution expansion, and disciplined execution. • Comfort operating in fragmented markets with multiple go-to-market models. Route-to-Market and Partner Management • Experience designing and optimizing route-to-market models across distributors, DSD partners, redistributors, brokers, and export channels. • Strong broker and distributor management capability, including performance expectations, scorecards, and execution standards. • Ability to build scalable selling models and operating cadence that improve coverage and in-market execution. Customer Leadership and Joint Business Planning • Senior-level customer leadership with the ability to build credibility and influence with retailers, operators, and distributor partners. • Proven joint business planning capability across assortment, pricing, promotion, and activation. • Grocery experience beneficial as a foundation for JBP rigor and customer economics, while not the core focus of the role. Commercial Planning and Execution Discipline • Demonstrated discipline in forecasting, pricing, and trade investment management across multiple channels. • Track record improving execution standards, including distribution, merchandising, and promotional compliance. • Comfort leveraging business intelligence and analytics to guide decisions and course-correct quickly. People Leadership and Enterprise Collaboration • Proven ability to lead, develop, and hold sales teams accountable to clear expectations and KPIs. • Experience building organizational capability and scaling structure as the business grows. • Strong cross-functional partnership with Marketing, Revenue Growth Management, Finance, and Operations.

Responsibilities

This critical commercial leadership role owns the full P&L for Convenience, Value, and Foodservice businesses, setting and executing a multi-year growth strategy across these dynamic channels. The leader is also responsible for building and developing a high-performing commercial organization, establishing scalable route-to-market strategies, and deepening key customer and distributor partnerships.