MNC liquor firms hit by exodus

Top-level changes are happening at multinational liquor companies operating in the country.

In the last couple of weeks, at least five key people in the industry have put in their papers: Dinesh Jain, managing director of Highland Distillers; K Chatterji, vice-president of Seagram India; Arun Parikh, general manager (manufacturing) of Seagram India; Anupam Dutta, director (marketing), UDV India; and Ashish Misra, controller (marketing), Bacardi.

Though it is not yet known where UDV's Dutta is going, Santosh Kanekar from Sony Entertainment Television has joined in his place.

As director (marketing), Dutta was responsible for the marketing of Guinness UDV's most prominent brands.

Bacardi's Misra quit recently to join Henley Centre, a WPP group company. Misra was responsible for Bacardi's white-rum brands, Carta Blanca and Bacardi Limon.

While Vinay Golikeri from Pepsi Foods has joined the company as manager (marketing), the post of controller (marketing) still remains vacant.

Jain of Highland Distillers was in-charge of Famous Grouse and McCallan for India and area countries.

He joined Remy Associes as sales director five years back and moved on to become the managing director of DCM Remy -- a joint venture between Remy Cointreau and the Lala Bansi Dhar-controlled DCM Shriram Industries Ltd -- and later of Highland Distillers.

Jain, an alumni of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, had worked with Hindustan Lever for 12 years prior to joining Remy Associes.

Chatterjee of Seagram India was responsible for the sales of the company's complete portfolio in the east and west zones of the country.

The company owns brands such as Chivas Regal, 100 Pipers, Royal Stag and the entire portfolio of Pernod Ricard as well.

Parikh, on the other hand, was incharge of manufacturing of all the Indian-made foreign liquor brands under the company's portfolio, including 100 Pipers and Royal Stag.