Diageo will report its preliminary full-year results on Wednesday (31 July). Here, just-drinks takes a look at the group’s highs and lows in the three months to the end of June.
- The race to raise capacity of Scotch production continued in Diageo’s final quarter, with the company releasing plans for another new distillery in Scotland. The facility will cost GBP50m (US$75.5m) and will be based in the Highlands region.
- Two of Diageo’s senior executive team confirmed in recent months their intentions to step down from the company. First, in April, the president of the Latin American & Carribean region, Randy Millian, said he would retire at the end of June. Then, earlier this month, corporate relations director Ian Wright said he will leave the firm in March next year.
- The biggest HR change at Diageo was announced in early-May, with CEO Paul Walsh stepping down from the helm at the end of June, to be replaced by COO Ivan Menezes. Will Menezes maintain Walsh’s good relationship with the press corps?
- The company suffered a blow in Turkey in May, when the country’s authorities proposed a raft of new alcohol laws. Diageo owns the domestic spirits producer Mey Içki, and warned that it would be “highly disappointed if the most restrictive scenario (from the proposed legislation)came to pass”.
- The owners of the Jose Cuervo Tequila brand, the Beckmann family, spent the quarter recruiting new distributors for the brand after talks with Diageo over a possible acquisition collapsed late last year. In April, Proximo Spirits, which is also owned by the Beckmanns, was lined up in the UK & Ireland, with Think Spirits set to take Cuervo in Australia. In Spain, Grupo Zamora will distribute the Tequila from this month, while Edward Snell & Co will take over from Diageo in South Africa.