Australia: Foster’s announces regional restructure

Foster’s Group Limited announced July 14 the restructuring of the company into three new regional businesses. From 1 August, Foster’s will operate as three businesses covering Australia, Asia and the Pacific; the Americas; and Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Shaw Stockbroking informed July 14.

Australia’s largest brewing and wine company said that each regional profit centre will draw on the expertise and support of a global supply chain team, and a global marketing and consumer insights team, as well as global support functions comprising finance, strategy, human resources and legal.

As a result of the reorganization, the group will trade as Foster’s in every market and will no longer refer to its businesses as Foster’s Wine Estates, Foster’s Australia and Foster’s Brewing International.

In a press release of July 14, the board of Foster’s endorsed the simplified, “consumer led, customer driven” business structure, which it said would lead to strengthened global processes, insights and practices.

Announcing the restructure, chief executive officer, Trevor O’Hoy, said that with the integration of Southcorp now largely complete, and after two years of significant transformation, Fosters is a fundamentally different company.

“Our unique Australian multi-beverage business is gaining momentum, we’ve created one of the world’s finest multi-region, premium wine portfolios, and we’ve made substantial headway with our plans to realise greater value from the Foster’s beer brand,” Mr O’Hoy explained.

He noted that the company had also divested non-core businesses and assets to enable the group to focus on premium drinks.

“Our new structure brings us closer to our customers and consumers, while formalising and reinforcing our One Foster’s philosophy of working as one team, sharing our capabilities and infrastructure across products, processes and regions,” Mr O’Hoy said.

Foster’s advised that, under the planned restructure, managing director, John Murphy, has tendered his resignation.

The company reported that from August 1, the current managing director of Foster’s Wine Estates, Jamie Odell, would become the managing director of Foster’s Australia, Asia and Pacific.

Scott Weiss and Peter Jackson will continue as managing directors of Foster’s Americas, and Foster’s Europe, Middle East and Africa.

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