Diageo CEO Debra Crew Steps Down, CFO Nik Jhangiani Named Interim Chief
Debra Crew, who has led top global spirits marketer Diageo as CEO for the past two years, has stepped down and departed the board of directors “with immediate effect, by mutual agreement,” the company said this morning. She will be replaced on an interim basis by current Diageo CFO Nik Jhangiani. “The Board has begun a comprehensive formal search process, which will include consideration of internal and external candidates,” Diageo said.
Crew initially joined Diageo as a non‐executive director in 2019, then served as president of Diageo North America and subsequently as global COO. She took over for longtime Diageo chief Ivan Menezes two years ago, with her planned appointment moved up as Menezes fell ill and unexpectedly passed away in summer of 2023. Jhangiani, a veteran of Coca-Cola and Colgate-Palmolive, joined Diageo last September.
Diageo chairman John Manzoni credited Crew with “steering the company through the challenging aftermath of the global pandemic and the ensuing geopolitical and macroeconomic volatility,” adding, “The Board’s focus is on securing the best candidate to lead Diageo and take the company forward. We strongly believe Diageo is well placed to deliver long‐term, sustainable value creation.” Manzoni joined Diageo’s board in October 2020, after serving as chief executive of the UK Civil Service from 2014 to 2020. He took over from Javier Ferran as chairman in February.
According to Impact Databank, Diageo had global spirits volume of 232 million cases last year on a 2% decline, placing it well ahead of second-ranked Pernod Ricard at 150 million cases. During Crew’s tenure, Diageo’s shares have dropped about 44% of their value, as the company confronted a sharp industry pullback after the sales boom during the pandemic. Shares rose 3% this morning after the announcement.
Diageo saw sales grow 5.9% organically to $4.4 billion in the three months through March, representing its fiscal third quarter, boosted by higher shipments as distributors stocked up ahead of expected tariffs on imported brands. In the nine months of the fiscal year to date, Diageo sales grew 2.4% organically to $15.3 billion.
Diageo’s U.S. spirits sales jumped 7% in the third quarter, besting depletions growth of 5%, “driven by a pull-forward of imports to distributors in anticipation of tariffs which we expect will reverse in Q4, and also Tequila restocking given continued strong consumer sales performance,” according to the company. Diageo added that it benefited from easier comps this quarter, lapping a wave of retailer destocking at this time a year ago.
Looking ahead, Diageo is sticking with its earlier guidance calling for a “sequential improvement in sales” compared with its fiscal first half, along with a slight decline in organic operating profit, impacted by tariffs. The company estimates that current tariffs—including 10% levies on the U.K. and E.U.—will shave $150 million from profit, but says it can mitigate about half of that figure.
Meanwhile, Diageo is embarking on a new Accelerate cost savings initiative, aimed at saving $500 million across its business, adding that the effort will be “supported by appropriate and selective disposals over the coming years.”—Daniel Marsteller
| Diageo—Top Eight Brands In The U.S. (millions of 9-liter case depletions) |
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| Rank | Brand1 | Origin/Type | 2023 | 2024 | Percent Change2 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Smirnoff | American Vodka | 8.4 | 7.9 | -6.0% | |
| 2 | Crown Royal | Canadian Whisky | 6.9 | 7.2 | 4.0% | |
| 3 | Captain Morgan | Virgin Islands Rum | 5.0 | 4.4 | -12.0% | |
| 4 | Don Julio | Tequila | 2.4 | 3.4 | 39.6% | |
| 5 | Ketel One | Imported Vodka | 2.5 | 2.5 | -0.3% | |
| 6 | Casamigos | Tequila/Mezcal | 2.5 | 2.0 | -20.4% | |
| 7 | Johnnie Walker | Scotch Whisky | 1.9 | 1.8 | -9.1% | |
| 8 | Bulleit | Bourbon/Rye | 1.8 | 1.7 | -5.7% | |
| Total Top Eight3 | 31.3 | 30.6 | -2.0% | |||
| 1 Includes flavors, excludes RTDs. 2 Based on unrounded data. 3 Addition of columns may not agree due to rounding. Source: IMPACT DATABANK © 2025 |
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