Britvic rocked by further senior departure

Richard Manaton, director of brands at Britvic, is believed to be on the point of quitting, just four months after marketing director Steve Kay left the job suddenly.

Manaton has been director of brands since Kay left in September. Britvic declines to comment on Manaton’s move.

Britvic has been rocked by a series of top departures over the past year.

One week after Kay’s unexpected exit, Lisa Roby, marketing manager at Britvic responsible for distributing Pepsi, 7-Up, Mountain Dew and Ballygowan, quit to join Ogilvy & Mather. At the same time, David Johnston marketing manager for new product development and market research left after six years with the company to go to Pepsi, which owns Britvic, as its marketing director in Poland.

It is not certain under what circumstances Kay left, but his departure was a shock because of the success of the “You’ve been Tango’d” campaign. He had one of the highest profiles in the marketing industry.

Although the Tango variants have been successful, the marketing of some other brands has been criticised.