Constellation Brands Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Constellation Brands full-time

Pros – Great benefits including stock options, profit sharing, and good bonus program. Fantastic portfolio of brands.

Cons – Big egos of upper management can make you feel like your opinion is not important. A little bit of an "old boys club" can make it hard to fit in, especially with sales management team.
They reorg constantly and have taken pricing and program decisions away from Field Sales Managers. Can be hard to get promoted. Sales has become very process driven and structured.

Advice to Senior Management – Find a way to give more responsibility to Field Sales Managers. They can't get promoted to Sales Directors because they don't have pricing/programming experience but can't get that experience at Constellation. Listen to employees at lower levels more. Zone GMs are not always right, regardless of what they believe.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Constellation Brands

Pros – People work really hard here to create and promote the best wine and spirits products possible.

Cons – Very unorganized. Company not focused on employee growth.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Constellation Brands full-time for less than a year

Pros – Great work atmosphere
Really good colleagues
Lots of challenges present due to mergers and acquisitions
Good benefits and employee sales discounts

Cons – At times there is chaos because of legacy data issues
Career progression maybe limited if you get stuck in the wrong group
Location is not the best

Advice to Senior Management – Improve visibility of worker bees

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Constellation Brands full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Sales org loaded with talented people. Good mix of young and enthusiastic and experienced and good mentors. Managers really care for their people. Heavy workload and high performance goals, but plenty of rewards to go along with them. Like working with friends. Very good senior management. Amazing wine and spirits portfolio. Good stock comp.

Cons – High expectations. Heavy workload. Not for the weak, but good for the strong. Used to change the structure frequently, but has been nice and stable for the past several years.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep investing in the brands.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Constellation Brands full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – There is a great group of people (middle-management and below) that you work with on a daily basis. It was these people that made it a friendly atmosphere and made it feel like a second home. The people are truly willing to help you out in any way possible. The work requires you to critically think and you have the opportunity to make many of your own decisions and do things how you want to do them. They also have an on-site gym, partial cafeteria for lunches and host events for employees (albeit, the events decreased over the past few years)!

Cons – There is a lack of promotional opportunities. The salary was on the low end in comparison to the "market value" for similar positions with other companies and within industry segments; In addition, you are not valued or compensated for your loyalty and dedication for the years of service you put into the company. The average employee must work 50+ hours a week to keep up with the ever increasing job demands. The company has downsized departments and headcount so people are forced to do more with less. It is a public company and there is a constant push to please Wall Street.

Advice to Senior Management – Treat everyone as if they are as important as the person in upper-management that sits in the office next to you. You should watch Undercover Boss and see that things are never as peachy as you may think at the lower levels and divisions within the company. Reward hard work with more and better opportunities for current employees!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Constellation Brands full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Somewhat balanced work/life.
Free wine here and there.

Cons – Upper management is promoted based on rank in popularity rather than skill.
The company doesn't value loyalty.
No promotion from within.
Immature leaders/managers.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop being penny wise and pound foolish. When you don't promote your people or give them raises, there are other ways to heighten their loyalty and self esteem. This company is 2nd rate to others in the wine industry and always will be until you can get ahold on leadership and truly make a difference in the culture, and how employees are treated. You have good, talented people working for you - treat them that way. Retain them! Take a tour at google or sit down with a head exec from Facebook - it will teach you a lot. Good luck.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Constellation Brands full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Good perks (wine discounts) and salary in most cases - benefits actually pretty bad especially health care.

Cons – Was a great company to work for but over last three or four years management changes have made it a terrible place to work unless you are one of the chosen few that get away with anything they want to do. Management keeps pushing people to unreasonable workload levels and even if those individuals can keep up with the requirements they are not compensated accordingly for their efforts. Morale terrible for all but the "chosen few"

Advice to Senior Management – One of your core values is that "people are one of your most important assets" - you should go back to the days when you treated your employees that way.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Constellation Brands

Pros – Good pay and benefits relative to other wine industry employers. Many individual managers are committed to creating a good product and a positive environment.

Cons – Poor communication from management, poor advancement opportunities, overemphasis on short-term growth rather than long-term stability. There is very little importance placed on developing employees as a long-term investment; people are expected to move on rather than to grow into new positions.

Advice to Senior Management – Fill upper management positions with people who understand the beverage business, including wine, rather than with people who are primarily sales or HR managers. Consider decentralizing senior management so that employees around the world have more contact with and communication from you and can better understand your goals.

Current Employee – been working at Constellation Brands full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – The company is full of great people, has overall positive leadership, there's always lots going on and it's a good work environment.

Cons – Salaries aren't great, bonuses aren't effective at motivating. The company is moving towards centralized systems and it seems to be not well thought out.

Advice to Senior Management – Improve salaries, create useful bonus systems, and give us some perks. It will make your staff happier, keep us with you longer and improve the company in the long run.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Constellation Brands full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – People, Culture, Opportunities, Working environment, Engagement

Cons – Exposure in the business - needs to be self directed

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company