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Boby Kurian

Bangalore , March 28

THE UB group Chairman, Mr Vijay Mallya, in tandem with his foreign partner Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) Plc, has revamped the top management of his beer business, as they merged the operations of their two beer entities - United Breweries (UB) Ltd and Millennium Alcobev Ltd (MABL) - under the banner of the former company.

The UK-based brewing giant (S&N), which picked up 37.5 per cent stake in United Breweries (UB) Ltd, has announced the name of Ms Lesley Jackson as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of UB Ltd, even as Mr Mallya effected a reorganisation of the top management following the operational streamlining of the two entities.

This operational merger, to be followed by an equity merger at a later date, is expected to give UB Ltd the requisite size and shape to thwart any possible challenge to its market leadership from the closest rival, SABMiller, in the domestic beer market, the company officials said.

According to the operational merger, which was decided in Mumbai last weekend, Mr Kalyan Ganguly will continue to head UB Ltd with a new designation of Chief Executive Officer, while the Managing Director of MABL, Mr Ravi Jain, who is not part of the merger plans, could take up some other assignments within the UB group.

Mr Ganguly will be assisted by three Executive Vice-Presidents - Mr N.K. Mittal, who will look after manufacturing, Mr Shekar Ramamurthy, who will spearhead marketing and sales, and Mr Joe Noronha, who will be in-charge of the HR functions.

Ms Jackson, who comes on board as CFO, was earlier the finance director of UK's cider maker HP Bulmers, which was acquired by S&N last year.

The key managerial resources of MABL, Mr Ravi Kaza, Mr R.D. Bhargava, Mr Sudhir Jain and Mr Sridhar Rangan, who assisted Mr Jain in building the company's 10 million cases annual sales in less than four years, will now be part of UB Ltd.

Informed sources said another 10 people from the middle to senior management in MABL will be absorbed into Mr Mallya's proposed airline venture, Kingfisher Air.

The UB group would look at accommodating the left out staff of MABL into other group companies based on mutual acceptance, while those who want to leave will be given a "fair and reasonable settlement."

After the just announced operational merger, UB Ltd will be managing beer sales of over 44 million cases in an overall domestic market pegged at about 85 million cases annually.

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