We are excited to share several changes to the Merchandising Team by department.
Beer, Cider and Ready-to-Drink
Ashley Ennis is the new RTD Product Manager and has already transitioned over to the team. Joining Ashley is Kelly O’Heir. Kelly is a new Category Administrator for RTD who will be supporting Grocery and Convenience store new product on-boarding for the next 9 months. Both Ashley and Kelly report to Lesley Morgan, Senior Category Manager for RTD.
Spirits
The Spirits team has welcomed Madison Pearce as Product Manager for the Whisky category to backfill Emily Liao who was recently promoted into the Senior Category Manger (Acting) Brown Spirits position. We are also excited to welcome Simran Sahni into LCBO starting July 9th as the Product Manager for Brandy/Cognac and Liqueurs reporting to Emily. Simran will also manage Rum and Holiday gifting assortment with a dotted line reporting to Jeryca Dillas. Simran comes with category experience in both luxury retail and most recently as a category manager at Loblaws Companies Limited.
E-Com - Merchandising
The Merchandising team has welcomed KJ Lee as the new Product Manager, E-Commerce. KJ brings category experience Loblaws Companies Limited and in her new role, she will be responsible for planning and managing product offers, assortments and promotions for eCommerce channels. KJ will report into Jessilyn Kim, Senior Category Manager, E-Commerce
Gifting and Customer Events
The Merchandising division welcomes the Gifting and Events team, which will be led by Kevin Ethier. Kevin has been promoted to Director, Gifting and Customer Events and will be responsible for leading all gifting, gift cards, corporate gifting and LCBO events. Kevin will report to Abhay Garg.
Denise Papaconstantinou, Product Manager (gifting, gift cards, packaging and accessories) will report to Kevin along with TJ Gill, Senior Manager Events, who will lead all LCBO category events.
European Wines and Destination Collection
We're thrilled to welcome Kristy Petra to the team as the Product Manager for Italy, replacing Madison Pearce. Kristy has 12 years of buying experience gained from holding progressive positions at various retailers including Indigo Books, Article and Loblaw. Mostly recently, she was the Category Manager, Home Décor and Home Fragrance at Indigo. Kristy will be reporting to Greg MacDonald. Greg MacDonald will also manage the Spanish, Portuguese, and German wine categories. With this change, Julie Hauser will report to Greg MacDonald.
We are very excited to announce that we have created a brand-new role. Paul Farrell will bring his years of experience into the role of Senior Category Manager, Premier Collection & Corporate Gifting. In this role Paul will be responsible for the purchasing of highly curated premium assortment across all categories for LCBO stores. In addition, he will lead the growth and development of the corporate gifting program and will have Shaun Lynch, Manager of Corporate Gifting (CDO) report into him. Paul will report into Kevin Ethier.
To backfill for Paul, we’re pleased to announce that Lisa Chapman has been promoted to the role of Senior Category Manager, France. We will also welcome Laura Ruffolo back to Merchandising on August 19th in the role of Product Manager, France reporting to Lisa Chapman.
Daniel Lefebvre has been promoted as the Acting Product Manager, Destination Collection reporting to Liam Salichuk. Daniel has been working on the team as the Spirits & Beer Product Advisor for the past 2 years. Daniel will assume this role until Ginny Demain returns from maternity leave in January.
Please find the updated contacts here.