TENNENT’S Lager owner C&C Group has appointed a new finance chief at the end of a challenging year for the brewer.
The company has announced that Andrew Andrea, former boss of pub giant Marston’s, will join as chief financial officer and executive director on March 1.
The appointment comes at the conclusion of a difficult year which saw the company beset by challenges linked to the upgrade of a stock ordering system in May, resulting in a €22 million hit to the bottom line in the first half.
Former chief executive David Forde stepped down with immediate effect on the day the problems were announced to the market in May, and has since been replaced by Patrick McMahon, C&C’s former chief financial officer.
However, C&C signalled at the end of October that it was well on the road to recovery following the IT upheaval, which disrupted supplies of wine and spirits from its Matthew Clark and Bibendum businesses to bars, restaurants, and hotels across the UK. It cited a “robust performance” in Scotland and Ireland by Tennent’s and Magners, which delivered revenue growth of 9.1% in the six months ended August 31.
READ MORE: Tennent's Lager chief quits with immediate effect
The company, which also owns Magners Irish Cider, said yesterday that Ralph Findlay, who has served as executive chair since May, will revert to the role of non-executive chair following a short transition period after Mr Andrea joins.
Mr Andrea, who served Marston’s for more than 20 years in a variety of senior roles, and steered the business through the pandemic, said: “C&C is a business that I know and have admired throughout my career in the industry. The group’s combination of iconic brands and market-leading distribution capability is unique, and I look forward to bringing my expertise and working with the entire C&C team to support the growth of the business in the years ahead.”
Mr McMahon said: “Andrew brings a rare depth of experience within our industry to C&C, and we are delighted to welcome him to the business. We continue to focus on building C&C as the premium drinks and distribution business in the UK and Irish markets. Andrew will bring invaluable expertise and insight to our team and help deliver on that ambition.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here