Cellar Door Manager
(Wine Jobs:
Vineyards & Cellars )
Full Time
Henners Vineyard- East Sussex,
England
Title: Cellar Door Manager
Reporting to: Commercial and Brand Manager
Hours: Full Time (Tuesday-Saturday)
Contract: Permanent
Salary: Competitive
Location: Henners Vineyard- East Sussex
The Role...
The role of the Cellar Door Manager is to deliver our overall strategic target of ensuring revenue is generated directly through the cellar door – both the ‘Shop’ and ‘Local B2B [Business-to-Business]’. The role focuses on driving awareness of the vineyard and our activities in the local area, ensuring best in class tours, tastings and events are delivered; the smooth running of our on-site shop; driving web sales throughout the year; and gaining business-to-business traction in the local area.
The Person...
The person we are looking for will be hands-on in terms of running the shop on-site, while having the ability to manage the team in delivering the business’ broader direct-to-consumer (D2C) objectives. A proven track record of having managed an experiential/destination site would be advantageous, and ideally, you will have a creative mindset in relation to designing and implementing footfall and awareness-driving initiatives. Commercial acumen is a must as autonomous P&L management will be required.
The Business...
Henners Vineyard is a unique winery with lofty ambitions located in the South-East corner of England in the village of Herstmonceux. As one of the Boutinot ‘Homes’, (we are part of a family of Vineyards which includes sites in France, Italy, South Africa, and New Zealand), Henners enjoys the benefits of International recognition while still having our focus on what we can achieve in our own part of the world in East Sussex.
As a founder member of WineGB’s sustainability programme, Henners takes very seriously its responsibility to leave the biggest impression with the lightest practical footprint – something we look to carry over into our Cellar Door operations.
“And why is it an exciting time to work in English wine?”… The English Wine scene is enjoying global attention and, alongside other emerging regions, England is at the forefront of “next world” winemaking. A region ripe with opportunity, the world is waking up to the huge potential of England’s emerging signature style.
Key Responsibilities...
- Responsible for delivering revenue and profitability across D2C & Local B2B channels.
- Drive consumer/customer awareness within a 10-mile radius for developing business and footfall opportunities.
- Annual planning and implementation including full events calendar, growth plans, and commercial forecasting. Events are required to drive footfall and reflect our key marketing messages.
- Develop and implement footfall plan to increase attendance at cellar door tours and events
- Weekly, Monthly and Annual reporting of commercial performance.
- Implement B2B sales plan in partnership with senior leadership.
- Development of ‘on-site consumption’ initiative (Seated drinking, food offering, etc).
- Working with the Cellar Door Operations Executive, drive self-guided tour sales through physical & digital communication.
- Manage and occasionally deliver/host vineyard tours and tastings – this includes understanding and implementing the most efficient schedule, managing costs, ensuring these are commercially viable, and looking to increase spend with value-added initiatives.
- Management of Shop staff including rota, payroll, day-to-day activities, & recruitment.
- Respond to incoming Cellar Door queries (phone, email, etc).
- Management of licensing (food standards, alcohol licensing, Health & Safety).
- Host key trade customers for tours & tastings when needed.
- Working with the winery team to implement the very best customer experience from arriving at the vineyard to leaving.
- Manage any customer complaints/issues that may arise day-to-day.
- Spotlight Homes Wines on-site. Inc Staff training to ensure everyone is confident in selling them.
- Relationship management/POC for tour companies and local community initiatives.
- Management of social media & marketing plan, responsible for working closely with the Operations Executive on design and distribution of marketing messages.
