It’s been a big week at the executive level in the Australian drinks industry, with both Treasury Wine Estates and Coca-Cola Amatil announcing management restructures.
Treasury Wine Estates is revising its senior management, human resources and finance operations.
It follows the appointment of Angus McPherson, Managing Director, ANZ & Europe, as President – Americas and Global Sales, replacing Victoria Snyder.
TWE said McPherson’s role will not be replaced, with Peter Neilson continuing as Managing Director, Australia and New Zealand and “strong leaders” overseeing the other regions.
It was also revealed this week that Angus Lilley will replace Michelle Terry as global CMO.
Terry was promoted to global chief marketing officer in April last year. She had been with TWE since 2008, holding a number of regional brand and marketing roles.
“Angus has a proven track record for developing effective brand strategies and leading strong teams, and challenges the status quo in the ever-changing marketing landscape,” TWE noted in a statement.
Earlier this year, Tim Ford replaced COO Robert Foye after he was dismissed for breaching internal policies; while Asia Managing Director Peter Dixon left for competitor Accolade Wines and was replaced by Tom King as North Asia MD.
In the latest move, most HR and finance responsibilities will move to TWE’s Melbourne head office (pictured above), leading to some job losses.
TWE told The Australian that less than half a dozen positions will be made redundant in the process.
A spokesperson said that over the past three to four years the winemaker had “deliberately carried additional senior managers” so that it had the resources for “fixing and strengthening” its business.
“The way we achieved this was to have a head of function and deputy, and a head of region and a deputy. As we’ve come to the end of fixing and strengthening phase, we have only required one head of a function and one head of a region — this has resulted in some senior executives moving on, while some have remained and gone into other roles.
“The last of these moves was Angus McPherson moving to the Americas to run this business, and the role he vacated overseeing Australia, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Africa and Europe has not needed to be replaced, with strong leaders overseeing these regions.
“We no longer have or require deputies of functions or regions going forward.”
Management restructures at Amatil
The TWE news follows Coca-Cola Amatil announcing Alcohol & Coffee MD Shane Richardson (pictured main) is leaving the business as part of major changes to its organisational structure.
Group Managing Director Alison Watkins said all beverage categories would now be managed in line with geographic responsibilities:
• The Australian based Alcohol and Coffee portfolios will join the Australian Beverages team under the leadership of Peter West.
• Alcohol and Coffee in New Zealand, Paradise Beverages in Fiji and Samoa, and the international alcohol sales team, will join the New Zealand and Fiji businesses under the leadership of Chris Litchfield.
• The Coffee portfolio in Indonesia will be part of the Indonesian business under the leadership of Kadir Gunduz.
The changes take place as Amatil is completing a two-year transition phase for the Group and is targeting a return to mid-single digit earnings per share growth from 2020.
Watkins said that the achievements across the alcohol and coffee categories over the last five years had been impressive, with an expectation that revenue and profit growth would continue as planned under the new structure.
“We will report on the Alcohol & Coffee segment for the 2019 financial year and we expect it to maintain its revenue and growth targets,” she noted.
“This performance will continue to be driven by our customer and brand partner accountability combined with our world class spirits, beer and coffee capability.”
“Our progress and achievements in these categories are a great credit to outgoing Alcohol & Coffee Managing Director Shane Richardson who has led the business since 2014 and who will now be leaving Amatil.
“Shane is a recognised leader in the beverages industry and has brought tremendous drive and energy over his almost six years with us. We owe him deep gratitude for his outstanding leadership of Alcohol & Coffee, and for his dedication to brand partners, customers, consumers and the portfolio.
“The results under Shane’s leadership have been remarkable, more than doubling the business’ profits over the last five years, establishing a highly successful business today and setting us up for strong performance well into the future.
“On behalf of Coca-Cola Amatil we thank Shane and wish him all the best for the future.”
Richardson said he was very proud of what he and the entire Alcohol & Coffee team had achieved together over the last five years.
“It’s been a delight to lead this incredibly talented team who continue to challenge themselves as they work towards delivering five consecutive years of double-digit profit growth,” he said.
“I am very proud that we have taken the business from 4% of Amatil earnings to almost 10% in this short time. It is now a good time for me to look for my next challenge, knowing the team and the business is in great shape. I wish them every continued success in the future.”
