PAUL Walsh may be two years from retiring but he’s determined to keep pushing himself and spirits giant Diageo until it is time to go. That should take him to the eve of the vote on Scottish independence. Is he bothered? Not particularly.
The company is represented in 180 countries and is used to dealing with tax and political systems from Germany to Guatemala. Adding another into the mix is hardly likely to register.
But that’s not to say it doesn’t matter if a future Scottish Government takes some bad turns. Diageo is so powerful that it can move the focus of its business to where it can achieve the best returns, or as Walsh himself puts it, “if market X wobbles we can target market Y”.
By the same token, Walsh dismisses the focus on China, saying his business has such “rich diversity” that it need not worry if Asia Pacific tightens. He mentions Africa in the same breath, as if to reinforce the point that there is always somewhere else that is buying more beer, gin, vodka and whisky.
It’s why the debate about Scottish independence is almost irrelevant to the multinationals. In Diageo’s case, Scotch whisky is core to the business and one that – uniquely – cannot be manufactured anywhere but Scotland. Diageo has recently unveiled a £1 billion investment in distilling which is a long-term project.
It is not Diageo’s commitment to Scotland that should be questioned, but Scotland’s commitment to Diageo and others in an industry that is such an important part of the economy.
Forget the independence debate, what is more worrying to Walsh is minimum pricing which he describes as “wrong” and for which he says there is no evidence to support the claim that it curbs behaviour.
As a former chairman of the Scotch Whisky Association, he’s fully behind its legal action against the Scottish Government.
Just weeks before the referendum in 2014, Diageo will be flying the flag for scotch as a sponsor of the Ryder Cup golf tournament at Gleneagles. It will be interesting, post-minimum pricing legislation, how the relationship between company and government will develop over that time.
By then, of course, Walsh, 57, may have handed over to his successor, tipped to be Ivan Menezes who was appointed chief operating officer in February.
“When we announce my retirement, rest assured this business will not miss a beat,” Walsh tells me. It sounds like he’s getting ready to wind down, though maybe he’d like to get that tequila deal under his belt before he goes.
No doubt he’ll also weigh in, if required, with an opinion on anything that he considers a threat to the business.
Beware the hubris of stones in glass houses
THE so-called “alternative” banks have made great play of how much better behaved they are than their bigger rivals. In an appeal to customers to desert the bad boys of banking they’ve played the ethical card at every opportunity.
But maybe they’re not so squeaky clean after all.
First it was Clydesdale admitting to payment protection insurance mis-selling and bad loans, made worse by those excruciating television adverts which took a holier-than-thou view of the rest of the sector.
Co-operative chief executive Peter Marks yesterday had to face questions on the same failings. In fairness, Marks put his hands up.
More to the point, he said the Co-op was not guilty of some of the more serious practices and that what had been below standard did not undermine its core values.
But it’s difficult to avoid seeing this as a warning to those living in glass houses not to throw stones.
Mystery of Doherty no nearer an answer
WHILE we’re back on the subject of banking there is still no word from Tesco Bank on Shaun Doherty, its IT and operations director.
Doherty has been a loyal lieutenant of chief executive Benny Higgins, following him from Standard Life to HBOS and in 2008 to Tesco Bank.
I was told at the weekend that he’d left the business, but calls to the bank and two stories in Scotland on Sunday and The Scotsman have yet to elicit confirmation one way or the other.