Wendy Rayner has been appointed as Managing Director of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners New Zealand (CCEP NZ), following 11 years with the company.
She will become the first New Zealand woman to hold the position in Aotearoa, having been promoted from her role as General Manager of Strategy and Brand for CCEP NZ across New Zealand and the Pacific.
Rayner said it is an honour to lead the fantastic team in Aotearoa, and alongside an incredibly talented leadership team, she is looking forward to getting stuck into the work with a laser focus on what’s important and will drive business growth.
“Our customers and suppliers, and of course our team, are central to what we do, and we wouldn’t exist without them. We’ll look to how we can continue to partner with each other and work together to keep pace with the changing market and expectations.”
In outlining her vision for the role, Rayner stresses renewed momentum for the business in continuing CCEP NZ’s roadmap towards decarbonisation and emissions reductions across its sites.
“We’ve progressed so much in the past few years, including achieving the carbon neutral certification at our Putāruru bottling site and I’m particularly focused on accelerating this area of the business. I get really engaged when I learn from others and by working closely together with my team, we have a pipeline of sustainability projects that support our leadership position and we don’t want to take our foot off the pedal on that.
“We’re a global company and that affords us access to significant frameworks and best practice, and I want to ensure we are adapting global innovation and models into a local context that will work best here in Aotearoa. That’s a powerful combination we can tap into.”
Rayner said they have an ambitious strategy that goes to the heart of customers’ and consumers’ needs, a committed and high-performing team, and she looks forward to navigating them through the next exciting chapter.
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