Vintage Wine Estates has appointed Moët Hennessy North America boss Seth Kaufman as the company’s new president and CEO, succeeding Jon Moramarco.
Former Constellation Brands executive Moramarco took on the role on an interim basis in February this year, when previous CEO and company co-founder Pat Roney moved across to the chairman’s post. At the same time, former chairman Paul Walsh, the long-time Diageo CEO, became Vintage’s lead independent director.
Kaufman, who is expected to take on the CEO duties no later than 30 October this year, spent nearly 20 years at PepsiCo before being appointed president and CEO of Moët Hennessy North America four years ago.
During that time, Vintage said, he had organically grown the business in the high single digits, while increasing profitability.
In a joint statement, Roney and Walsh said Kaufman was joining the business “at a critical juncture, as we transition the organisation to drive stronger earnings and cash flow, focus resources on key brands for growth, simplify the organisation to improve productivity and strengthen our operating processes”.
Vintage, the 14th-largest wine business in the US with annual sales of more than 2m cases, was targeted by several law firms following the announcement of its fiscal 2022 results in September last year.
The company also restated its first quarter results for fiscal 2023, thanks to “the misclassification and accounting for certain assets and also the timing of recording certain costs”.
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