Diageo appoints former Tesco boss and marketer Dave Lewis as incoming CEO

Diageo has announced former Tesco boss and marketer Sir Dave Lewis as its incoming CEO, as the drinks giant looks to revive its fortunes.

Lewis, who will take the helm of Diageo in January, led Tesco through a turnaround during his tenure as CEO between 2014 and 2020.

The supermarket business had been suffering following an accounting scandal, which had led to significant losses and tumbling brand perceptions. When Lewis departed the business he was credited with having performed an “outstanding job rebuilding Tesco”.

With Lewis having been credited with one of the most significant business turnaround stories of recent years, the Diageo board will be hoping he can give the company, which owns brands including Guinness, Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff, a major boost.

The spirits market has been struggling to find growth post-Covid, and Diageo, as a leader across many categories, has suffered accordingly.

There have been questions from investors about whether trends in the spirits category are cyclical rather than structural.

Former CEO Debra Crew stepped down in July “by mutual agreement” after two years in the job. Since then, Diageo has seen its share price fall further, and last week announced it was downgrading its sales and profit outlook for its 2026 financial year amid a challenging backdrop.Diageo CEO outlines ‘opportunity to get much more for less’ from its advertising spend

Lewis is also an experienced marketer, before joining Tesco he spent three decades at Unilever, where he was a marketing leader as well as a business unit leader.

The significant experience that Lewis brings in building brands was highlighted by chair of the Diageo board Sir John Manzoni as the appointment was announced.

“Having conducted an extensive and thorough global search, the Board unanimously felt that Dave has both the extensive CEO experience, and the proven leadership skills in building and marketing world-leading brands, that is right for Diageo at this time,” Manzoni said.

Following former CEO Crew’s departure, chief financial officer Nik Jhangiani took on the role of interim CEO. He will remain in role until the end of December, at which point he will return to his CFO role.

Despite Jhangiani having only been in the interim role for a handful of months, the challenges faced by the business necessitated decisive action. Jhangiani highlighted Diageo’s advertising and promotional spend as a particular area of focus, asserting that there is an opportunity to get “much more for less” from the investment.

He also commented that Diageo had got itself into a “vicious cycle” on advertising investment, where it had spent in pursuit of growth without being sure the spend was actually driving returns.Diageo CEO admits it got into a ‘vicious cycle’ on marketing investment

That meant that efficiency in advertising spend has risen up the agenda at Diageo, with a particular focus on the money spent in developing creative. In the company’s GB team, the business has reduced the number of agencies it works with by 30%, one of a number of changes that has allowed it to halve what it terms as “development spend”.

Whether this strategy of efficiency in marketing spend is maintained under former marketer Lewis remains to be seen. While Jhangiani, supported by interim chief financial officer Deirdre Mahlan, has taken decisive action as interim CEO, there have been questions from investors about whether having two temporary roles leading the business was counterproductive for long-term decision making at Diageo.

The announcement of Lewis as incoming CEO today may serve to give Diageo’s investors some idea of the business’s longer term future.

For his part, Lewis commented that he is “delighted” to be joining the business.

“The market faces some headwinds but there are also significant opportunities,” he said. “I look forward to working with the team to face these challenges and realise some of the opportunities in a way which creates shareholder value.”