Heineken to name Blood as new UK head

Published on Saturday 26 April 2008 14:36

JEREMY Blood, a senior executive at Scottish & Newcastle, is expected to be named as Heineken's top man in the UK when the Dutch brewer formally takes over this week.

Jean-Franois van Boxmeer, the Heineken chairman and chief executive, is understood to value S&N's senior management team and sees Blood, who is presently UK managing director of the firm, as crucial to maintaining continuity.

It is believed an announcement could come as early as Tuesday when Heineken officially takes control of Britain's biggest brewer.

"There is a feeling of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'," said one analyst. "Jeremy has done a very good job of running the UK side of the business and we expect that to continue."

Blood, who joined S&N in 1988 as a graduate trainee, has worked his way up through the company, holding a variety of marketing and strategy positions in both the beer and pub retail divisions.

"He's pretty switched on," said Mark Brumby, drinks analyst with Blue Oar Securities. "There are a lot of high-calibre individuals in that company, but certainly Jeremy is up there."

The board of S&N has already agreed to go after an initial handover period of between three and four months. It is thought that John Dunsmore, S&N's chief executive, stands to collect nearly 6m when the deal goes through, including 5.2m from cashing in more than 500,000 share options, along with a payoff of more than 1m and a personal holding of 170,000 shares in the firm.

Chairman Sir Brian Stewart, who has been praised for his work with S&N, reportedly stands to make 2.3m profit from cashing in his share options, along with personal shares worth around 2m.

But the biggest winners are Finnish pair Erik Hartwall and Henrik Therman, who will receive more than 72m between them. Hartwall gets 48m from the deal, while Henrik Therman will receive almost 24.5m. The pair joined the board when Hartwall sold his company, Finland's largest brewer Oyj Hartwall App – the maker of Baltika Beer – to S&N in May 2002.

Yesterday a spokesman for Van Boxmeer said the board was meeting in Amsterdam this weekend with a view to making an announcement this week. He said: "We are enormously excited about bringing Scottish & Newcastle under the Heineken umbrella. It is a really exciting move for us."