Munnawar Chishty has been promoted to CMO, overseeing both Britvic’s soft drink brands and Carlsberg’s beer brands in the UK. Former Britvic CMO Cindy Tervoort has departed the business.
Munnawar Chishty has been promoted to lead marketing across the Carlsberg Britvic business, which combines the brewer’s and soft drink maker’s brands together in a newly merged company.
Chishty, who previously led marketing in Great Britain for Britvic as its marketing director, takes on the new title of chief marketing officer for Carlsberg Britvic. The merged business was launched today (17 January) and unites Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company (the British subsidiary of the Carlsberg Group) and Britvic’s UK business.
As CMO, Chishty will oversee marketing not only across Britvic’s portfolio of soft drinks brands, which includes Robinsons, Tango and J2O, but also across a new group of beer brands including Danish pilsner brand Carlsberg, Birrificio Angelo Poretti and Brooklyn Brewery beers.
Chishty has been at Britvic since February 2023. Before that, she spent four years at Walgreens Boots Alliance as vice-president and global category director for beauty, leading on brands including No7, Soap & Glory and Liz Earle. Her CV includes senior marketing positions at FMCG companies including GSK and Johnson & Johnson, after starting her career working at Gillette (now part of Procter & Gamble) and PepsiCo.
She has experience with beer brands too, having been group marketing manager for ales at Scottish & Newcastle, the brewer behind brands such as John Smith’s and Strongbow until it was acquired by Heineken in 2008.
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Britvic’s CMO prior to the merger, Cindy Tervoort, is departing the business, having been in role since June 2023. This is just one of a number of senior departures from the business as Britvic is delisted from the UK stock exchange and some roles are consolidated. Britvic CEO Simon Litherland is also leaving.
Paul Davies, the leader of what was the Carlsberg Marston Brewing Company, will now take on the role of CEO of the combined Carlsberg Britvic business. Davies is a former marketer, having joined Carlsberg UK as a marketing director in 2007, before being promoted to vice-president of marketing for Carlsberg Sweden. Before his time with the Danish brewer, he held marketing roles at consumer goods companies including Premier Foods and United Biscuits.
Meanwhile Carlsberg Marston Brewing Company vice president of marketing John Clements has made the decision to retire following the merger.
The £3.3bn takeover of Britvic by the Carlsberg Group was first agreed back in July but was only legally completed yesterday (16 January). The acquisition of Britvic comes following a financial year that it termed its “best-ever” as it increased revenues by 9.5% year-over-year. It drove volume, revenue and positive price and mix in every quarter of its 2024 financial year, which concluded in September.
This impressive financial performance came as the company significantly stepped up its marketing spend. Chishty spoke to Marketing Week earlier this week explaining how that investment case was made.
The Carlsberg Group is yet to report its whole 2024 financial performance; however, in its third quarter it indicated that volumes had declined in the UK over the period. Across the whole group, revenue grew 1.3% year-over-year in the third quarter, while volumes declined 0.2%.
