Vintage Wine Estates has created the role of operations VP, the latest move in the US company’s attempts to stabilise itself.
One week after new CEO Seth Kaufman pledged to “turn the business around”, the “14th largest wine producer in the US” has appointed Farzana Shubarna, a former global director at Unilever’s ‘centre of excellence’. The news follows the announcement this month of a 6% fall in sales from the three months to the end of September. According to the winery owner and direct-to-consumer seller, Shubarna will bring experience from “driving value creation from her strategic leadership roles in manufacturing, warehousing, sustainability programmes and end-to-end supply chain operations”.
“We believe we can fully leverage the expertise that Farzana is able to bring to our company with her differentiated experience to drive increased efficiencies and best-in-class practices,” said COO Zach Long.
Shubarna’s career also includes a stint with Anheuser-Busch InBev’s US unit where she was a maintenance reliability engineer.
Vintage Wine Estates hit the headlines last year when several legal companies in the US threatened litigation after the company posted an unexpected profits slide for fiscal 2022, despite a healthy lift in sales.
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