First Drinks lures Tony Scouller

Former United Distillers & Vintners (UDV) marketing chief Tony Scouller has come out of retirement to head First Drinks Brands’ marketing department.

Scouller was persuaded to return to the drinks business full-time by Chris Mason, managing director of First Drinks, which handles Glenfiddich whisky and Stolichnaya vodka. Mason joined the company five weeks ago from Pernod Ricard, where he was chief executive of the duty-free division.

Mason has known Scouller for some time and offered him the position at a recent Marketing Society event.

The job has been vacant since last April, when Chris Meredith left to join a marketing consultancy.

Scouller, who retired from UDV last June, will take over as marketing director for an initial one-year period.

Mason comments: “People with Scouller’s management skills and product record in brand-building are rare.”

First Drinks, a joint venture between Bacardi-Martini and distillery William Grant, also handles Amorola Cream liqueur and Campari.

One of Scouller’s main tasks will be to develop the Glenfiddich 12-year-old malt whisky brand, which was relaunched this week with a new bottle design and a &£1m advertising campaign.

Scouller is also a non-executive director of Malcaster PR, a partner at Brand Genetics and a director of design consultancy Springpoint. It is not known how his new post will affect these roles.

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