Row erupts over brewery marketer exit

Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries marketing manager Alison Cannon has quit, leaving managing director David Thompson in charge of her role.

Cannon resigned on Monday, without another job to go to. Industry sources say her decision to leave was sparked by a clash with Thompson.

But the company maintains that she is going because she is eight months’ pregnant, and has decided not to take advantage of maternity leave.

Adrian Willis, new business development manager, says: “I can only report what Thompson said to us. Cannon planned to attend a conference in Dublin the company was holding but she had second thoughts about flying in her advanced state of pregnancy.

“She decided to resign and has no intention of coming back, as far as we are aware.”

Thompson was unavailable for comment as Marketing Week went to press.

Cannon joined Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries last year from HP Foods, where she was a marketing manager on own-label and Daddies sauce. On her appointment, she called for a “back to basics” approach to marketing in the beer industry.

She took control of the Wolverhampton-based company’s biggest brand, Banks’s, together with Camerons, Hanson’s and Zamek lager, an imported product from the Czech republic.