Beverage Brands, the owner of WKD, has made Steve Whitlock its new customer marketing controller.

Whitlock joins from SHS Sales & Marketing GB where he worked for six years in a commercial role. Prior to that he worked for 10 years at drinks bottler and wholesaler Matthew Clark.

In the new role, Whitlock will manage take-home and on-trade customer marketing teams, reporting to Debs Carter, WKD brand controller.

"I am really looking forward to taking on this new challenge at a key time in the development of WKD as it continues to buck the trend in RTDs," he said.

Whitlock brings an unrivalled wealth of experience to the role, according to Karen Salters, marketing director for Beverage Brands.

"He will bring a strategic vision to a range of areas including the building of relationships with customers, working with the sales force, the development of tailor-made activity and rate-of-sale driving activity for the brand," she said.