Exclusive
By Scott Wright
SCOTCH whisky giant Chivas Brothers has a new boss, The Herald can reveal.
The Dumbarton-based distiller, which is part of the Pernod Ricard drinks empire, has appointed Jean-Etienne Gourgues as its new chief executive and chairman.
Mr Gourgues was drafted in following the abrupt departure of Jean-Christophe Coutures, who left the company in July after three years in the role.
The exit of Mr Coutures, who has returned to his native France, brought a 21-year association with Pernod to a close.
Mr Gourgues was most recently managing director of Pernod Ricard China.
Chivas confirmed the changes to The Herald after new filings at Companies House showed that Mr Coutures was no longer a director of Chivas Brothers Limited and Chivas Brothers (Holdings) Limited.
The company said in a statement: “Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky business of Pernod Ricard, can confirm the appointment of Jean-Etienne Gourgues as chairman and CEO from July 1, 2021.
“Jean-Etienne joined Chivas Brothers from Pernod Ricard China, where he served as managing director. Previously, he was president and CEO of Pernod Ricard Japan, and he has also held senior positions at Martell Mumm Perrier-Jouët and Allied Domecq.
“Jean-Etienne succeeded Jean-Christophe Coutures who will be returning to France after serving as Chivas Brothers Chairman and CEO for three years.
“Jean-Etienne will be part of Pernod Ricard’s executive committee and will be based at Chivas Brothers London HQ, after relocating from Shanghai.”
Mr Coutures held senior roles with Pernod in Asia, Australia and Ireland before succeeding Laurent Lacassagne as chief executive of Chivas Brothers in February 2018. He arrived as Chivas was preparing to switch its Scottish bottling operation from Paisley to Dumbarton.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel