British American Tobacco hunts for marketing chief

British American Tobacco (BAT) is searching for a UK marketing director following an organisational restructure that will see its Rothmans UK business folded into the global company structure.

BAT has appointed Swiss marketing director Juergen Pick as managing director of its UK operating company, which will have its name changed from Rothmans UK to British American Tobacco UK.

UK marketing director Ralph Wittenberg has been moved to a managerial position in South Africa after less than one year in the job. Marketing responsibilities will be handled by Pick until a replacement for Wittenberg has been chosen.

Close to 100 jobs have been axed during the past year in the marketing and sales departments as part of a wider overhaul of the UK business (MW May 1, 2003).

The move is seen by tobacco industry insiders as a sign of difficult times at Rothmans UK, which lost the right to distribute Philip Morris’s market-leading Marlboro brand in 2001 (MW August 16, 2001).

The brands that remain – including Rothmans, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall and Dunhill – have failed to fill the gap left by Marlboro’s departure, which cut BAT’s UK market share by more than half, to six per cent.