Mndeni Mncwango | The Coca-Cola Company - Marketing Lead: Schweppes & Local Brands

Mndeni has cross functional experience within FMCG and has worked for Beverage companies such as Brandhouse and The Really Great Brand Company and more recently at Nedbank. Where he excelled in understanding customers’ needs whilst balancing brand strategies and business focus resulting in winning strategies. Some of his career highlights include achieving 1 Million Hectolitre sales of Heineken resulting in the South African market being the fastest growing volume driver for Heineken global. Launch of Heineken Light and also leading the team which saw Heineken become the number one premium beer in South Africa in terms of Market Share, overtaking Castle Lite. Relaunching Southern Comfort with a new brand and commercial strategy and more recently launching Nedbank MobiMoney a new way for the Entry Level Banking Market to bank by using their cellphone numbers. He has also been involved in generating new profit avenues for Nedbank by exploring new avenues which incorporate financial services through www.unlocked.me a portal built around 3 pillars for anyone between the ages of 18-26. He then returned to FMCS where he was the marketing lead for the Food Business unit for Nestle ESAR ( East and Southern Africa Region) where he lead the relaunch of the food business unit through the MAGGI brand and developed new profit optimization models which continue to be implemented to date. Mndeni then joined the Coca-Cola company as the Category Lead for the Nutrition business and more recently the Schweppes and Local Brands lead where he is Responsible for achieving volume and share targets for assigned projects by creating and executing the category management plans; develops category or channel merchandising and promotions strategies with marketing and sales teams; develops sales materials tailored to brand, account or channel; responsible for category analysis and the on-time delivery of promotional materials. Managing teams with focus on policy and strategy implementation and control rather than development; short-term operational/tactical responsibilities.