Endeavour Group chairman Ari Mervis has been named executive chairman as the Australian drinks group continues to look for a new CEO.
In September, the retail, wine and spirits brands major said company veteran Steve Donohue would step down as CEO and MD.
The plan was for Donohue to stay on while Endeavour Group looked for a new chief executive.
At the time, the company said Donohue and the board had “determined now is the right time for a new leader to take the group into its next phase of growth”.
Donohue assumed the position of CEO at Endeavour in 2018, after it demerged from Woolworths Group Limited on the Australian stock exchange in 2021.
In a statement issued yesterday (27 February), the publicly listed group said its search for a new chief executive was “well progressed” but it now expects the new CEO to start after Donohue’s 12 months notice period has expired.
Mervis, appointed Endeavour’s chairman in January last year, will take up the executive chairman position from 17 March, when Donohue will end his tenure as CEO and MD.
Endeavour said Mervis will keep his position for up to 12 months while it finalises the appointment of a new CEO.
Mervis has been chair of consumer goods group McPherson’s, which has announced he will temporarily step down from the role.
The former Accolade Wines and SABMiller executive said: “As executive chairman, I look forward to working with the Endeavour team on improving the business’s performance to realise the full potential of Endeavour’s unmatched assets. I intend to accelerate further opportunities to generate growth and prioritise efficiencies and cost savings as part of Endeavour strategy to simplify the business and focus on the core strategic pillars.”
Endeavour closes bottling site
Endeavour, meanwhile, has confirmed plans to shut a bottling facility in South Australia. The move is expected to affect 30 employees.
“Following a review of our bottling capacity at our South Australian facilities, we have made a decision to close our Prowine facility in Gawler in March 2025 and we are working through a consultation period with impacted team members.”
Endeavour’s Pinnacle Drinks subsidiary acquired Prowine in 2018.
The business said a “decline in domestic consumption and the changing export market impacting overall demand” means it cannot maintain three production sites.
The group will move the volumes processed at the Gawler facility to Angaston and McLaren Vale, where it has “capacity and capability”.
Endeavour also yesterday published its half-year results, which included a 0.7% decline in revenue to A$6.62bn. The company’s profits dropped by 15% from A$521m in the six months to 5 January.
