FDBusiness.com

Beam Suntory, the world’s third largest premium spirits company, has announced that it will simplify its regional structure by merging its four operating regions into three. The company will combine management of its Europe/Middle East/Africa and Asia Pacific businesses to create a larger International Region. Furthermore, the company’s South America business will become part of an expanded Americas region. This organizational simplification will result in three regions – Americas, Japan and International – with more comparable scale and sales in the range of $1 billion or more each.

The new International Region will be led by Albert Baladi, president of Beam Suntory’s current EMEA region.  Albert Baladi will be supported by managing directors of five geographic clusters: Oceania, Emerging Asia, Developed Europe, Emerging Europe & Middle East/Africa, and Global Travel Retail. Tim Hassett, president of Beam Suntory’s current North America region, will lead the expanded Americas region.

“With the Beam Suntory integration largely behind us, we can now benefit from simplifying our regional structure,” says Matt Shattock, chairman and CEO of Beam Suntory. “Merging our EMEA and Asia Pacific businesses helps ensure our business is set up to win by being close to our customers and consumers, aligning with our long-term growth strategy, and creating opportunities for some of our best and brightest talent. We also see benefits from uniting all of our Latin America markets in the same region. We look forward to driving continued momentum in the marketplace with our three strong regions.”

Separately, Nick Fink, president of the current Asia Pacific/South America (APSA) region, has accepted a US-based senior executive position at a public company outside of the spirits industry.