Diageo Appoints Sally Grimes As CEO, North America
September 21, 2023Diageo has announced the appointment of Sally Grimes as Chief Executive Officer, North America, a newly created role at the company, and Claudia Schubert as President & Chief Operating Officer, North America, effective October 1.
Diageo says Grimes is “a proven leader in consumer goods and is well-known as a world class innovator and brand builder.” Grimes has 25 years’ experience in the food and beverage sector, most recently as Chief Executive Officer at Clif Bar & Company, the leading maker of organic energy bars in North America.
At Clif Bar she led the development of a 10-year strategic growth plan and ultimately completed the successful sale of the company to Mondelez International. Prior to that she was Group President of the Prepared Foods segment of Tyson Foods, America’s largest food company, running a $10 billion, 25,000-person organization, reporting to the Global CEO.
“Sally’s appointment further strengthens our world class executive team at Diageo,” said Diageo CEO Debra Crew. “Sally brings a significant depth of experience in the consumer goods sector in North America and has a proven ability to drive substantial growth in businesses. I’m confident that with these appointments, we are set up to win at pace in North America.”
Schubert, who was already president of the North America region, now adds the COO role. A two-decade industry veteran, she is credited with having “successfully led the US Spirits business through the disruption of Covid delivering significant growth, (and) has managed the explosive rise of our Tequila business and integrated several acquisitions.”
North America is Diageo’s largest market, and has grown 41% since fiscal 2019 in net sales terms. The company says it’s intent on “investing behind the further growth opportunity that the market presents including in its brands, portfolio and in its talent.”
For its most recent fiscal year, ended in June, Diageo posted organic sales up 6.5% to £17.1 billion ($21.8b) globally, with operating profit up 7% organically to £4.6 billion ($5.9b). The core U.S. spirits business was down 1%, impacted by the post-pandemic normalization trend and tough comps especially in the second half of the year. Depletion growth was about two percentage points ahead of shipments, however.—Daniel Marsteller
| Diageo Top Seven Brands in the U.S. (millions of 9-liter case depletions) |
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| Rank | Brand1 | Origin/Type | 2021 | 2022 | Percent Change2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Smirnoff | Domestic Vodka | 8.9 | 8.8 | -1.7% |
| 2 | Crown Royal | Canadian Whisky | 7.5 | 7.2 | -3.1% |
| 3 | Captain Morgan | Virgin Islands Rum | 5.4 | 5.3 | -1.2% |
| 4 | Ketel One | Imported Vodka | 2.6 | 2.5 | -3.6% |
| 5 | Casamigos | Tequila | 1.8 | 2.4 | 34.5% |
| 6 | Don Julio | Tequila | 1.8 | 2.1 | 12.5% |
| 7 | Johnnie Walker | Scotch Whisky | 2.0 | 2.0 | -0.7% |
| Total Top Seven | 30.0 | 30.3 | 0.9% | ||
| 1 Includes flavors, excludes RTDs. 2 Based on unrounded data. Source: IMPACT DATABANK © 2023 |
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