Making a Long Story Short

Working at Rémy Cointreau since October 2007
Current position: Director, Financial Planning & Analysis
Located in New York City
3 skills to work in your team: Problem solver, motivator, team-player

Your Job

What does your role as Finance Planning & Analysis Director entail?
My role is best broken out by two components: managing the yearly budget/LE process and managing Risks & Opportunities (R&O) vs our current budget/LE via variance analysis and monthly Profit & Loss (P&L) monitoring/reporting.

How is your team structured?
My team is structured between brand controllers each managing all P&L components for the specific brands they are responsible for and a Senior Manager of Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), guiding the budget processes and consolidating R&O for our team.

What do you like best about your job?
What I like most about my job is that every day is different and there are new analyses to tackle and skills to learn daily. There are always up to the minute changes and requirements to this industry. As our business is evolving at such a fast pace, it requires myself and my team to react accordingly just as fast and we are up for the challenge!

The Pandemic

How have you been affected by the pandemic?
I think it’s safe to say we all have been affected greatly by the pandemic on a day to day basis. For me, the main shift was adjusting my ways of working from in-person to virtual. With technology and IT’s great execution, this was rather seamless at Rémy Cointreau which was quite impressive. I find working from home has been more productive than I ever imagined!

Regarding your missions, how can one establish a finance planning through such a fast-evolving environment?
I think the key is agility and flexibility, and to know that once a plan is set, it is almost immediately outdated the next day as new information arrives. In managing these business changes, monitoring R&O based on the latest data available frequently is a necessity.

What is your analysis on the impact of the crisis on our business?
For the most part, the pandemic has had a largely positive impact on our business in the US. Fiscal Year 2021 has been an amazing year from a performance standpoint. It has also been interesting to see how the pandemic has brought new trends to the forefront- to- go cocktails, increased consumer at-home mixology as a few examples that our company has been able to take advantage of. Size mix shifts due to off premise focus have also benefited our margin on brands like Cointreau.

Building a Career With Us

What have been the main steps of your career at Rémy Cointreau?
I started my career here at Rémy Cointreau as a senior analyst, FP&A and have taken on increased responsibility to manager, senior manager and now my current role as a director all within FP&A. I have felt extremely supported here since Day 1 and have had great opportunities to learn from a variety of mentors throughout my career here, not only in Finance but other departments throughout the organization.

What actually made you stay in the company for so long?
I think the key element is the feeling that the opportunity to learn and grow is always there. The most valuable thing I’ve learned is that being flexible and agile is the key to success. What I enjoy best at Rémy Cointreau (aside from our amazing products!) is the people I get to work with daily. My colleagues are some of the best people to work with and I feel thankful to be a part of such a wonderful and dynamic team!

Any advice or must-know to someone thinking about joining Rémy Cointreau?  
Be prepared to work hard and be ready for an adventure!!