Post-acquisition rebuilds
New owners inheriting sales organizations built to run on someone else's global systems — facing an 18–24 month window to stand up their own.
Africa · Alcobev & Beverages Practice
Africa's beverage market is being rebuilt. Who is rebuilding your commercial engine?
Ownership resets, new country leadership and newly listed African challengers are converging on one question: how do you rebuild commercial capability — fast, credibly, and without betting on an expensive generalist firm? Lighthouse installs the sales system. We've built it before, inside one of the world's largest spirits companies.
Diagnostic first. Programme only if the fit is obvious to both sides.
$32.5BAfrica's beer market in 2025 — growing ~6.5% a year
3National-champion breweries changing hands in one 12-month window
25+International markets that adopted commercial systems our founder built
$45M+Documented profit impact across our founder's career
Why Now
The largest ownership reset in a generation
Within roughly twelve months, three of Africa's national-champion beverage businesses have changed hands: East African Breweries to Asahi, Guinness Nigeria to Tolaram, and Guinness Ghana to Castel. Each transition removes a market from a century-old multinational's central commercial playbook overnight — and the systems, reporting lines and operating discipline typically do not transfer with the equity. In parallel, several of the region's largest brewers have installed new country leadership within the last 12–18 months.
New country leadership
MDs and Sales Directors in their first 12–18 months, with a mandate for visible commercial improvement and the political cover to bring in outside perspective.
African challengers scaling
Indigenous beverage groups going public and expanding internationally — needing a commercial operating model that scales as fast as their manufacturing footprint.
Why Lighthouse
We've built this exact infrastructure before — inside a global spirits leader
Our founder spent eleven years (2008–2019) inside Pernod Ricard India building the precise category of commercial infrastructure Africa's newly reset beverage organizations now need. This is not adjacent experience — it is the same work, done at multinational scale, in a high-complexity emerging market.
HawkEye — SFA & CRM
Designed and built an award-winning sales-force automation and CRM platform that Pernod Ricard replicated across more than two dozen international markets. If your question is "who has actually rebuilt commercial systems before?" — this is the answer.
iGROW — the capability calendar that went global
Created a structured commercial capability-building system deployed as a Pernod Ricard global standard — directly analogous to the capability mandates now landing on HR and commercial leaders across African beverage companies.
Go-to-market organization design
Institutionalized GTM execution with dedicated retail/wholesale and brand-activation teams, professionalized key account management, and led capability programmes across the HORECA channel — the channel structure driving urban African on-premise consumption.
FMCG's toughest classrooms
Hindustan Unilever, Gillette, PepsiCo International, Britannia — then eleven years at Pernod Ricard. US$45M+ in documented profit impact, 25+ brands scaled. PhD, SP Jain School of Global Management, Sydney.
How We Engage
Diagnostic first. Programme only if the fit is obvious.
We don't open with a programme pitch. We open with a structured, low-risk diagnostic — so you experience our judgment directly before committing to anything larger. The alternatives most organizations face are an expensive Big-4 engagement or a generic sales trainer with no beverage operating history. This practice exists to be the third option.
Step 1 — Executive benchmarking conversation
A 60–90 minute session benchmarking your commercial capability against peer and international best practice. You leave with specific, usable observations — whether or not we go further.
Step 2 — Commercial diagnostic sprint
A 2–3 week structured diagnostic of your commercial operating model, delivered as a standalone report plus an executive readout. Yours to keep and act on, with or without us.
Step 3 — Build & embed
Fractional Sales Director, the six-pillar Commercial Excellence Programme, or a multi-market Sales Head On Demand mandate — scoped from the diagnostic, not from a template.
The six pillars: Strategy & Segmentation · Sales Process · Talent & Capability · Incentives & Motivation · Data & Tools · Cadence & Governance
Questions
Straight answers
Our operating record was built in India — a high-complexity, multi-tier route-to-market environment with strong structural parallels to African beverage markets. The commercial systems our founder built at Pernod Ricard were adopted across more than two dozen international markets. Where local nuance matters, we say so openly and work with in-market partners rather than pretending otherwise.
The entry point is a paid 2–3 week diagnostic sprint, priced in US dollars for international engagements. You will have a clear number after the benchmarking conversation, before any commitment.
Diagnostics combine remote work with structured executive sessions. Ongoing mandates are remote plus periodic on-site, with a weekly cadence with your local team.
A strategy house will diagnose but not embed; a trainer will train into a system that doesn't exist yet. We install the system — process, tools, capability, cadence — and have done it inside a global alcobev leader, not around one.
Start Here
The window is 18–24 months. The first conversation costs you 60 minutes.
If you are leading a beverage business in Africa through an ownership transition, a new leadership mandate or a scale-up, the benchmarking conversation is the lowest-risk way to test whether outside commercial perspective is worth your time. No pitch — you'll leave with specific observations about your commercial organization, whether or not we ever work together.