InBev merges UK and Ireland under Rumbol

Stella Artois brewer InBev UK has promoted its marketing chief Phil Rumbol to head both Ireland and UK markets, as it restructures its marketing department.

The brewer’s operations are in a transition period following a merger of Interbrew with Brazilian Ambev in August last year. The restructuring has also resulted in 18 redundancies in the UK marketing team.

A new structure has been introduced to incorporate the Ireland operation into the main business and to consolidate marketing resources following a raft of new launches.

Rumbol explains that the key element of the reorganisation has been to move away from a “function-based” structure to the creation of “self-contained” brand teams. The teams will centralise resources under a head of brand, who will be responsible for the marketing, innovation and sponsorship of that brand.

“As part of our planning for 2006 and of a wider business review looking at more efficient and effective ways of working, we have reassessed the structure of the marketing department,” says Rumbol.

“This has led to our decision to merge and transfer some roles and responsibilities to specific brand teams – a move we believe will provide a more integrated and streamlined approach for individual brands.”