Allied Domecq appoints UK marketing director

Allied Domecq Spirits & Wine (UK) has appointed Grahame Cox, one of its international brand directors, as UK marketing director to replace Hayley Beale who left this month to move to San Francisco.

Cox takes up his new responsibilities for brands, including Teacher’s scotch whisky, Courvoisier cognac and Beefeater gin, with immediate effect. He spent the past two years in the International Brand Group overseeing fortified wines, including Harvey’s sherry and Cockburn’s port.

Cox joins after it emerged sales of Teacher’s tumbled last year, which the company stresses is the short-term cost for maintaining price and long-term profitability, and in the midst of the widely-publicised row over alcopops.

Allied Domecq sells a number of pre-mixed spirits brands such as Barking Frog and OT Tia, and is keen to distance itself from other manufacturers’ marketing of fruit-based alcoholic beverages.

The company is also in the middle of reviewing its media planning and buying account, currently held by Zenith.

The decision to appoint Cox is one of the first developments under the auspices of the company’s new managing director Michel Troutaud, former head of the French sales and marketing operation Ballantine’s SA.

He says: “Grahame has a great combination of marketing skills, international experience and a good understanding of the UK market.”

Cox, who joined Allied Domecq in 1987, was previously regional director for Harvey’s and Cockburn’s for the US and Canada, and has worked in Tokyo on secondment with Suntory, which has a number of important whisky distribution agreements with Allied Domecq.

Jamie Odell, Allied Domecq Spirits & Wine (UK) commercial director, moves to Allied Domecq’s Duty Free’s Asia Pacific operation on September 1.