Coors Brewers has picked Mark Hunter, top marketer at the former
Bass Brewers, as its marketing chief, handing him responsibility for a
marketing budget worth over £80m.
The appointment comes as parent Coors Brewing Company completes its
£1.2bn acquisition of former Bass brands including Carling,
Caffrey's, Reef, Worthington, Grolsch and Hooch from Interbrew. The
purchase makes Coors the UK's second-biggest brewer behind Scottish &
Newcastle.
As marketing and international development director, Hunter will also be
responsible for rolling out Coors Light, which is currently available
only in its test markets, Ireland and Scotland.
Hunter's brief is to expand Coors Light into England and Wales. The
brand is worth $2.8bn (£2bn) in the US.
Hunter, who has been marketing chief at Bass since 1998, will also
explore new export opportunities for the former Bass brands.
In the past, Bass' export arm has been based around sales of Bass and
Tennent's. It will now focus on ale brands, such as Caffrey's, and
flavoured alcoholic beverage brands, such as Hooch, said Hunter.
Hunter scotched previous reports that the rationale for the Coors
acquisition was to export Carling to the US. "Carling is owned by three
different organisations worldwide, and we can only export it to Europe.
There will be limited export opportunities for Carling, but they will
primarily be in Western Europe."
Hunter will report to Peter Kendall, who was this week named chief
executive officer of Coors Brewers. He was previously senior
vice-president and chief international officer at Coors Brewing
Company.
The rest of the Bass board will also remain with the former Bass brands,
with the exception of chief executive Jerry Fowden who has stayed with
Interbrew as chief operating officer. Coors European marketing director
Jamie Lister will remain with the company and will report to Hunter.
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