Come new year, and Diageo, the UK-based alcohol giant, will toast the arrival of Sir Dave Lewis, its new CEO. After the abrupt departure of Debra Crew in July, Diageo board members looked for the rare candidate who could revive the maker of Guinness beer, Johnnie Walker whisky, Don Julio tequila, Smirnoff vodka, Baileys Irish Cream\u2014all in all, more than 200 brands sold in 180 countries.<\/p>\n
Wall Street investors applauded Lewis\u2019s choice when they heard the news last month. Overnight, the stock-market value of Diageo increased by \u00a32 billion (about $2.62 billion).<\/p>\n
Investors love the consumer-packaged goods veteran, nicknamed \u201cDrastic Dave\u201d who spent almost three decades at Unilever. They anticipate this turnaround expert will once again strike gold, as he did at Unilever and later at grocer Tesco.<\/p>\n
Tall Order: Debt, Drug Trends, and a Post-Pandemic Hangover<\/p>\n
Lewis, 60, knows he will face what he calls \u201csome headwinds.\u201d Diageo suffers from a high debt level\u2014$22 billion at the end of June\u2014and declining sales. After Covid-19 boosted alcohol sales, consumers\u2019 tastes evolved. The rise of weight-loss drugs threatens alcohol sales. Inflation doesn\u2019t help, and the US and Chinese markets are beginning to falter. But Lewis sees \u201csignificant opportunities\u201d ahead.<\/p>\n
The new CEO, who is quitting his post as chair of Haleon, the multinational consumer healthcare company that makes Sensodyne, is known for cost-cutting and innovative marketing. At Unilever, he is remembered for slashing jobs and initiating a bold ad campaign for the personal care brand Dove, featuring everyday women rather than models.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2014, he became Tesco\u2019s CEO. At the time, an accounting scandal that had overestimated its profits by \u00a3250 million plagued the company. Lewis didn\u2019t hesitate. He cut thousands of jobs, simplified product ranges, lowered prices, and reduced Tesco\u2019s international ambitions. The supermarket chain was saved, and its CEO was knighted in 2021.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
What will be his cocktail of remedies for Diageo? Professionals are already speculating: revive sales talks for popular Guinness, or get rid of smaller regional brands, such as Chinese Baijiu or Brazilian Ypioca Cachaca? Investors are awaiting what Drastic Dave\u2019s new year\u2019s resolutions will be.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Come new year, and Diageo, the UK-based alcohol giant, will toast the arrival of Sir Dave Lewis, its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[21250],"tags":[5174,4142,21511,4110,6275,22991],"class_list":["post-46556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-diageo","tag-alcohol","tag-beer","tag-dave-lewis","tag-diageo","tag-dublin","tag-spirits"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116623622916233078","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}