More senior appointments at GMG

Tony Scouller, UK marketing director of GrandMet’s drinks arm, IDV, has been made acting managing director in the latest round of senior appoint-ments created by the merger of GrandMet and Guinness.

The new GMG Brands group and its spirits business UDV (the combination of IDV and Guinness’s drinks division United Distillers) must clear regulatory hurdles in the US and Europe before it can go ahead.

In the interim, Scouller, a well-known figure in the drinks industry, with marketing responsibility for brands including Smirnoff, Bailey’s and Cinzano will take over the managing director’s role.

The change was prompted by the appointment of his boss, Roy Spence, to the post of UDV information systems director, responsible for the company’s information technology around the world.

Spence will become chairman of IDV UK until regulatory approval has been achieved and the merger can go ahead, which a company spokesman says is expected by early next year.

He says Scouller will continue to handle his existing marketing responsibilities while IDV and United Distillers remain separate, com-peting companies. A decision on who takes the top marketing job at UDV in the UK has not yet been made.

“The local market operations will not be put together until the merger is complete,” says a GrandMet spokesman.