Hitchcock needs new rear window

The world of whisky marketing is small and incestuous. The Diary understands that the recently in-stalled chief executive of Whyte & Mackay, Ken Hitchcock, who joined the company after working for Fortune Brands of Australia, is on the look-out to buy a new house near to W&M’s head office in Charing Cross, Glasgow.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that he is thinking of buying a property from Paul Hicks, the former marketing director of rival Allied Distillers, based 14 miles away in Dumbarton.

Hicks was sidelined from Allied after the recent marketing shake-up, and is thought to be relocating to the South.

Meanwhile, Hitchcock has recruited an old colleague of Hicks – Allied’s former director of blends Dominic Brand – as his new mark-eting director.