GUINNESS REPOSITIONS FOR LONG TERM SUSTAINABLE GROWTH

Managing Director, Guinness Nigeria, Peter Ndegwa said that the company needed to reposition in order to achieve its objectives and respond to an increasingly volatile operational environment. “It is our performance ambition to be the best performing, most trusted and respected Consumer Products Company in Nigeria. With a challenging market economy and slowing GDP growth, increasing inflation, oil price crisis amongst others, we feel that this is a good opportunity for us to look at our structures, processes and culture and see how we may build a simpler, more agile and performance-oriented organization in order to achieve that ambition and respond with speed to enable us to win in the market.”

Ndegwa continued: “While work is ongoing to determine the full extent of these changes, we know that headcount will be impacted but our focus is to take a broader look at our organizational design to enable us build a more effective and efficient organization. These changes are required because we are determined to create the right conditions for our people, our brands and our business to succeed.”

Ndegwa concluded: “Africa is the fastest growing region for Diageo in the world and Nigeria is an important market for Diageo in Africa. We are committed to the Nigerian market, we have been here for 66 years and expect to be here for many more years. We feel that these changes will help transform our business and put us in the best shape to grow our business today and for the future.

“We are very excited about our consumers and some of the great innovation that we have launched recently and others coming in the pipeline as well. A great example is the Guinness Africa Special that we launched late last year – the first major innovation on the Guinness brand in 10 years!! We will also continue to invest in the spirits end of our Total Beverage Alcohol (TBA) portfolio. In addition, we are looking to increase our local raw materials sourcing to over 70%, all of this demonstrates our commitment to Nigeria and Nigerians.”

Guinness Nigeria has some of the most iconic alcohol beverage brands in Nigeria including Guinness Foreign Extra Stout and creates significant value for key external stakeholders including investors, the government and the wider community. The company also recently acquired the right to distribute Diageo Plc’s international Premium Spirits (IPS) brands which includes Johnnie Walker and Baileys in Nigeria in December 2015. In January 2016, the company announced the acquisition of the right to distribute the brands of United Spirits Limited in Nigeria. These acquisitions fill the gaps in the spirits brand base of Guinness Nigeria, allowing it to compete across all categories of the alcoholic beverage market in Nigeria thereby deepening its operations and boosting its growth potential in 2016 and beyond.