Ben Stephenson

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

Commercially astute wine and drinks professional combining buying, category and range development with entrepreneurial business leadership. Experienced in building profitable propositions, developing structured buying processes, negotiating supplier terms, creating brands and routes to market, and managing pricing and margin across retail, wholesale and hospitality. Brings strong product knowledge, customer insight and hands-on P&L, cashflow and operational responsibility.

Now seeking to apply this breadth of commercial judgement in a larger-scale wine, drinks or category environment.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

• Grew Hangingditch to approximately £750k annual turnover within six years, managing up to 55 suppliers, 1,000 SKUs and a team of 10 across retail, hospitality and wholesale.
• Developed a structured buying and pricing approach, including target retail gross margins of 35–40%, channel-specific pricing and supplier credit terms of 30 days EOM, extended to 60 days EOM with Boutinot during peak wholesale trading.
• Rationalised blossom street SOCIAL’s wine range from approximately 250 to 75 SKUs, while maintaining customer choice and value and improving ordering efficiency and stock control.

CORE EXPERTISE

• Wine Buying & Procurement ~

• Team & Operational Leadership ~

• Route-to-Market Development ~

• Sales & Customer Insight ~

• Supplier Negotiation & Credit Terms ~

• Pricing & Margin Management ~

• Brand & Product Development W
• holesale & B2B Development

• Category & Range Management

• Commercial Planning & P&L

• Stock Control & Cashflow