Chivas Brothers rejigs marketing

Chivas Brothers (CB), the global Scotch whisky business formed after last year’s purchase of Seagram’s wine and spirits business by Pernod Ricard, has completed its new marketing structure.

As predicted in Marketing Week (June 13), Sophie Gallois, ex-marketing director for wines at CB’s sister company Pernod Ricard UK, joins as a brands director, with responsibility for super premium brands, including Chivas Regal 18 Year Old, Royal Salute and Chivas Revolve.

Neil Macdonald, formerly of Pernod Ricard’s Scotch subsidiary Campbell Distillers, becomes brands director for malt whiskies, while ex-Seagram marketer Geoff Parmiter becomes director of standard blends.

Parmiter will also have responsibility for the malt whisky Glen Grant, the company’s heritage visitor centres and point of purchase, interactive and other marketing support. Leslie Fitzell, another ex-Seagram marketer, becomes strategic planning director.

Howard Southern is joining CB as brands director of Chivas Regal 12 Year Old. Southern was previously a director at WPP Group’s strategic research company, the Henley Centre.

All five will report to CB’s international marketing director Martin Riley, who joined from Irish whiskey company Irish Distillers, where he had been sales and marketing director. Pernod Ricard also owns Irish Distillers.

CB’s main brand is premium blended whisky Chivas Regal, which sells about 3 million cases a year around the world. Other brands include The Glenlivet, the best-selling single malt in the US, and 100 Pipers, the best-selling blended whisky in Spain, the world’s biggest market by volume.