William Grant hires new UK commercial director

William Grant & Sons has appointed PepsiCo’s Matt Billinghurst as its commercial director for the UK and Ireland.

Matt Billinghurst has joined William Grant & Sons UK

The new appointment is the result of a number of internal changes, including Neil Barker taking on the role of managing director of UK and Ireland and Rita Greenwood being promoted to managing director of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) in September 2017.

Billinghurst joins from PepsiCo, where he previously held the role of Tesco sales director.

He has held a number of senior roles across a range of trade channels, including leading the development of PepsiCo’s UK snacks strategy.

“I’ve already been impressed by the drive of William Grant & Sons UK to be a progressive premium spirits leader whilst maintaining the quality, passion and heritage of a five-generation family business,” said Billinghurst.

“It’s clear that I have joined a dynamic UK team and I’m excited to accelerate the commercial agenda with all our customer partners in the future.”

Barker said: “I’m delighted that someone of Matt’s calibre is joining William Grant & Sons at such an exciting time in our premium spirits growth journey – his experience of advanced multi-channel customer partnering is second to none and Matt’s ambition to develop our business in new trade channels can already be felt.”