Diageo Plc named Chief Operating Officer Debra Crew to succeed Chief Executive Ivan Menezes after a decade at the helm of the distiller of Johnnie Walker whisky.
(Bloomberg) — Diageo Plc named Chief Operating Officer Debra Crew to succeed Chief Executive Ivan Menezes after a decade at the helm of the distiller of Johnnie Walker whisky.
The elevation of an internal candidate signals continuity at the sixth-largest member of the FTSE 100 stock index, where Crew will become one of the highest-profile female executives in UK Plc.
During Menezes’ decade of leadership, Diageo became synonymous with premium spirits, acquiring brands like George Clooney’s Casamigos tequila for $1 billion.
Now, more than half of the company’s sales come from premium plus drinks — costing more than $50 a bottle — part of a push by leading spirits makers to get consumers to spend more without increasing their alcohol intake.
Crew’s challenge will be continuing to persuade drinkers to switch to pricier drinks amid a cost of living crisis.
“We believe the strategy will be one of evolution not revolution,” said Citi analyst Simon Hales.
Diageo shares fell less than 1% in London trading. Crew was widely expected to succeed Menezes since she was picked to become COO last July.
“This has been amongst the most orderly succession planning we can remember in consumer staples,” James Edwardes Jones, an analyst at RBC, wrote in a note to clients. “We won’t eulogize too much about Ivan, other than to say that his tenure has been seriously successful.”
‘Always on Shortlist’
Diageo shares have almost doubled on Menezes’s watch. The 63-year-old executive, who joined through the merger of Guinness Plc and Grand Metropolitan Plc in 1997, will leave at the end of June, Diageo said in a statement Tuesday.
Crew led the tobacco company Reynolds American Inc. before joining Diageo, and previously worked at PepsiCo Inc., Kraft Foods Group Inc., Nestle SA and Mars Inc. She has an MBA from the University of Chicago and has served as an officer in the US Army.
“We think investors will consider her to be a safe pair of hands,” Investec analyst Alicia Forry wrote in a note. “When thinking about who might eventually succeed Menezes, she was always on the shortlist in our minds.”
In a fragmented alcohol market, Diageo said in 2021 that it only has a 4% market share. It’s planning to grow that figure to 6% as it continues to make acquisitions, and as consumers switch from beer to spirits and opt for more expensive drinks.
–With assistance from Lisa Pham.
(Updates with Diageo shares in fifth paragraph)
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