The chief executive of Irish Distillers has been promoted to one of the most senior positions in the parent company Pernod Ricard. Mr Richard Burrows (54), will become one of two joint group managing directors with responsibility for about half of Pernod's business.
He is the first non-French person to occupy such a senior position at Pernod, the world's fifth biggest drinks company with sales last year of €3.6 billion (£2.8 billion) and pre-tax profits of over €340 million.
With Pernod's managing director, Mr Thierry Jacquillat - a key player in the controversial Pernod takeover of IDG 12 years ago - retiring to become a non-executive vice-chairman, Mr Burrows becomes joint group managing director with responsibility for Ireland and the UK, duty free sales, Scandinavia, North and South America.
The other joint managing director, Mr Pierre Prenquet, will have responsibility for Pernod's operations for the rest of Europe, Asia and Africa other than southern Africa. Mr Burrows said that in terms of Pernod's turnover, he and Mr Prenquet would have almost equal responsibility, adding that the division of responsibilities was partly based on language. He will be responsible for areas where English is the main language or is widely spoken.
"I'm looking forward to it. Our results of late have been very good and my job will be to build on those results. Pernod is fifth in the world drinks league and we have seven of the top 100 premium drinks brands," he said. Jameson, IDG's flagship Irish whiskey brand, is one of those premium brands and sales of Jameson have trebled since the Pernod takeover 12 years ago.
Pernod stepped in then as a white knight when IDG was under siege from the British group Grand Metropolitan (now part of Diageo) and gained control of IDG after a lengthy and contentious takeover battle. IDG has since proved to be an enormously profitable acquisition for Pernod and, while the Irish subsidiary has stopped reporting its results separately from the parent company, its profits last year are thought to exceed £60 million (€76 million).
Mr Burrows said that he would "bi-locate" between Pernod's head office in central Paris and his home in Malahide, Co Dublin. "Given the diversity of our business, I will probably be spending a lot of time travelling," he said, but added that he would still find time for his passion - yachting. He is chairman of the Irish Olympic Sailing Group.
His position as president of the employers' body IBEC expires at the end of June, but he intends retaining his position as a non-executive director of Bank of Ireland. Mr Burrows has been with Irish Distillers since 1971 and became managing director in 1978 and chairman in 1991.
Pernod has disclosed that despite the end of duty free sales within the EU last year, sales volumes of Jameson grew by 5.6 per cent in the first quarter.
