Brown-Forman has relieved chief strategic growth officer Marshall Farrer of his responsibilities for Europe, promoting from within for the regional president role.
Farrer, whose time with the group commenced in 1998, spent two-and-a-half years as the region’s head, before adding the growth moniker to his job title at the start of last year. The change, which takes effect at the start of March, will not affect his position on the Jack Daniel’s owner’s ‘executive leadership team, where he will “continue to … develop key partnerships, innovative ideas, and corporate development opportunities”.
Taking on the Europe president post will be Yiannis Pafilis (below), another lifer with 25 years’ experience at Brown-Forman. Pafilis, who has been the GM for markets including Greece & Cyprus and Russia during his tenure, will move up from his current role as “cluster leader of Germany, Czechia/Slovakia, and Poland while also leading Europe’s commercial strategy”.
Joining the four countries under his current watch will be the likes of Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Spain and the UK.
Late last year, Brown-Forman posted a 1% sales increase from the six months to the end of October, resulting in a downward revision of its growth forecast for fiscal 2024 – to the end of April – to between +3% and +5%.
