Beverage Lead: Kwench

YUM! Brands, Inc.; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 1,000,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

KFC South Africa is seeking a senior leader to own the end-to-end growth strategy for Kwench, the beverage platform. You will lead portfolio architecture, innovation, pricing, experience, partnerships and activation to grow beverage penetration and margin.

Build a distinctive beverage platform, set guardrails for brand expression and ensure scalable, profitable initiatives across restaurant, drive-thru, delivery and digital ordering.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, Commerce or a related field.
• 7–10 years in beverage, category, portfolio, innovation or trade marketing leadership.
• Strong beverage experience across soft drinks, juice, water, coffee, tea, energy, dairy-based beverages.
• Proven ability to build portfolio architecture, innovation pipelines and channel plans.
• Experience managing suppliers, bottlers, equipment partners and terms.
• Understanding of revenue growth management, pack-price architecture and margin.

Responsibilities

• Set Kwench Beverage Strategy with three‑year growth priorities and portfolio architecture.
• Lead innovation pipeline, pricing, experience, partnerships and activation.
• Optimize portfolio across restaurant, drive-thru, delivery and digital ordering.
• Govern quality, claims, food safety and supplier performance.
• Lead cross-functional beverage squads with clear objectives and scorecards.

Skills

Commercial judgement

Consumer insights

Portfolio strategy

Innovation leadership

Integrated marketing

Execution leadership

Data & AI fluency

Enterprise influence

Beverage category expertise

Supplier governance

Education

Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, Commerce or a related field

Job description

It all started with one cook who created a finger lickin' good recipe more than 75 years ago, a list of secret herbs and spices scratched out on the back of the door to his kitchen.

KFC

Hybrid

At KFC, we pride ourselves on being original. We even named our recipe after it. But for us, the answer to the question is simple. Be You. Everyone at KFC is different. Unique. It’s what makes us special - Our people, The Originals. And we welcome you to join us. Bring your individuality to the table. Bring your grit and energy. Bring your spirit. Your story. Your drive and your passion. Bring it. Every piece of you. Even the parts you don’t like. Because we value our people no matter what. We’ll feed your potential and we’ll support you; to be your best self, to make a difference, and have fun. Together, we can be part of something truly extraordinary. All you have to do, is Bring it.

This role requires you to own the end-to-end growth strategy for Kwench, KFC South Africa’s beverage line, with exclusive accountability for building a distinctive, scalable and profitable beverage platform. Lead portfolio architecture, innovation, pricing, experience, partnerships and integrated activation to grow beverage penetration, attachment, frequency and margin.

Responsibilities:

Set the Kwench Beverage Strategy

• Define Kwench’s role, positioning, ambition and three-year growth priorities within KFC South Africa.
• Create a clear portfolio architecture across core refreshment, meal accompaniment, indulgence, energy, better-choice and seasonal demand spaces.
• Identify customer, cultural and channel opportunities where Kwench can create incremental visits, attachment and margin.
• Establish guardrails for brand expression, naming, packaging, menu visibility and experience
• Build a disciplined innovation pipeline across flavours, formats, serves, packaging, equipment, bundles and limited-time offers.
• Partner with suppliers, beverage companies, Food Innovation and Supply Chain to develop differentiated, scalable propositions.
• Assess make-versus-partner choices, exclusivity, licensing, supply resilience and unit economics.
• Set test, quality, food-safety and scale criteria, then recommend whether to launch, optimise or stop.
• Develop pricing, pack-price architecture, meal attachment and promotional principles with Commercial and Finance.
• Optimise the portfolio by channel, recognising different needs across restaurant, drive-thru, delivery and digital ordering.
• Create execution standards covering availability, equipment, dispense quality, speed, visibility, suggestive selling and waste.
• Partner with Operations and franchisees to remove execution barriers and sustain standards at scale.

Build the Kwench Brand & Demand

• Set the creative and customer proposition for Kwench as a distinctive beverage platform within the KFC brand
• Lead integrated activation across menu boards, packaging, digital, CRM, social, media, PR, partnerships and restaurant theatre.
• Use cultural, flavour and consumption trends to keep the platform locally relevant without chasing short-lived fads.
• Build launch playbooks that connect proposition, operations, training, supply, media and measurement.

Drive Performance & Governance

• Set scorecards across beverage penetration, attachment, transactions, mix, volume, ticket, gross margin, waste, repeat and awareness.
• Lead regular business reviews with clear diagnosis, decisions and corrective actions.
• Recommend investment allocation based on strategic role, expected return and operational readiness.
• Maintain strong governance across quality, claims, food safety, supplier performance, equipment and customer feedback.
• Exclusive business ownership for the Kwench growth agenda.
• Direct leadership accountability to be confirmed.
• Lead cross-functional beverage squads and external supplier partners with clear objectives, decision rights and scorecards.
• Working Relationships: Key internal and external stakeholders.
• Marketing Director and Marketing Leadership Team
• Brand, Innovation, Media, Digital, CRM, Loyalty, PR and Social teams
• Operations and Restaurant teams

• Commercial and Finance

• Supply Chain, Food Innovation and Quality Assurance
• Consumer Insights and Analytics
• Technology and Digital Ordering
• Creative, media, research and specialist agency partners
• Strategic beverage suppliers, bottlers, equipment and packaging partners
• Quality Assurance, Food Safety and Procurement

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, Commerce or a related field.

Experience:

• Approximately 7 to 10 years of progressive beverage, category, portfolio, innovation, trade marketing or brand leadership experience.
• Strong beverage experience in soft drinks, juice, water, coffee, tea, energy, dairy-based beverages, foodservice or adjacent consumer categories.
• Proven ability to build portfolio architecture, innovation pipelines and channel plans with clear commercial accountability.
• Experience managing suppliers, bottlers, equipment partners, commercial terms and operational dependencies.
• Strong understanding of revenue growth management, pack-price architecture, attachment, margin, waste and channel economics.
• Experience scaling propositions across a multi-site or franchise network is advantageous.

Capabilities:

• Commercial judgement: Connect customer demand, pricing, product mix and investment choices to sales, transactions, margin and long-term value.
• Consumer and cultural intelligence: Translate changing needs, occasions and cultural signals into commercially relevant propositions.
• Portfolio strategy: Establish clear roles, priorities and guardrails across propositions and channels.
• Innovation leadership: Define problems to solve, build a test-and-learn pipeline and make disciplined scale, optimise or stop decisions.
• Integrated marketing leadership: Set clear briefs and align creative, media, digital, CRM, PR and restaurant activation.
• Execution leadership: Mobilise cross-functional teams with clarity, accountability, pace and early risk escalation.
• Data and AI fluency: Apply modern insight, measurement and marketing tools to improve decisions and effectiveness.
• Enterprise influence: Build alignment with senior leaders, franchise partners and specialist teams.
• Beverage category expertise: Strong command of consumption occasions, formats, flavour trends, dispense systems, packaging and category economics.
• Supplier and quality governance: Balance innovation speed with food safety, quality, supply resilience, equipment reliability and contractual discipline.
  

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