McKenzie replaced at Red Stripe

Published: Wednesday | June 17, 2009



Mark McKenzie, managing director of Red Stripe, will depart at the end of July 2009. - File

Having decided on a successor, Red Stripe on Tuesday announced that Mark McKenzie would in a matter of weeks give up his job as head of the beermaker, and that board changes were in the works in what chairman Richard Byles is describing as a move to "refresh" the company's leadership.

The reports that McKenzie was on his way out of the company - which emerged around the time that the company was making big changes in its operational structure - has been denied by the outgoing head and other officials within Red Stripe for about three months.

But Red Stripe, which trades on the stock exchange under the company's old moniker, Desnoes and Geddes Limited, and is more than 50 per cent owned by Diageo Plc, now says Alan Barnes will take over July 1, but under an arrangement that allows a one-month transition of leadership.

Fallen steadily

McKenzie, who has 20 years of experience with some of the world's top companies, including Coca Cola and Procter and Gamble, will remain with Red Stripe until the end of July.

He has piloted Red Stripe for the last five years, brewing record profits along the way, which topped $2.3 billion in 2005 and peaked. Since then, net earnings have fallen steadily for the company to an eight-year low of $1 billion in 2008.

McKenzie, however, maintained growth in revenues, reaching $12.5 billion last year, and improved the company's net worth every year of his tenure, with the exception of 2008, when stockholders equity dropped backed from $6.5 billion to $6.3 billion.

"After five challenging years with much that we can be proud of, the board has decided that it is again time to refresh the leadership of this iconic Jamaican business," said Byles in a company-issued statement.

Barnes will have regional responsibility for Diageo's "beer interests" in the Northern Latin America and Caribbean (NLAC) zone, under which Jamaica was pulled in the April restructurings. He will have a seat on the Red Stripe Board, while McKenzie will step down as director. Also joining the board is Lisa Lewis, who is the human resources director for Diageo NLAC, which is run out of Florida by Managing Director Randy Miller.

Barnes comes to Jamaica from Seychelles, where he oversaw operations in that country, as well as Reunion, Mauritius and Madagascar as general manager of Diageo's Indian Ocean operations.

business@gleanerjm.com