Foster's restructures for growth

Melbourne, 14 July 2006

The Board of Foster's Group Limited (Foster's) has endorsed a simplified, 'consumer led, customer driven' business structure, with strengthened global processes, insights and practices.

From 1 August, Foster's will operate as three new regional businesses covering Australia, Asia and the Pacific; the Americas; and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Each regional profit centre will draw on the expertise and support of a global supply chain team, and a global marketing and consumer insights team - both working across all product categories - and global support functions comprising Finance, Strategy, Human Resources and Legal.

As a result, the Group will trade as Foster's in every market and will no longer refer to its businesses as Foster's Wine Estates, Foster's Australia and Foster's Brewing International.

Announcing the restructure, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Trevor O'Hoy said:

"With the integration of Southcorp now largely complete, and after two years of significant transformation, we're a fundamentally different company - a great international drinks business, with an outstanding portfolio of brands.

"Our unique Australian multi-beverage business is gaining momentum, we've created one of the world's finest multi-region, premium wine portfolios, and we've made substantial headway with our plans to realise greater value from the Foster's beer brand. We've also divested non-core businesses and assets to enable us to focus on premium drinks.

"Our new structure brings us closer to our customers and consumers, while formalising and reinforcing our One Foster's philosophy of working as one team, sharing our capabilities and infrastructure across products, processes and regions".

Foster's Leadership Team

From 1 August, the following roles have been created, all reporting to the CEO:

Managing Directors for each of the three regions responsible for local sales and marketing execution, and capturing local growth opportunities.

- Jamie Odell, currently Managing Director Foster's Wine Estates, will become Managing Director, Foster's Australia, Asia and Pacific;

- Scott Weiss will continue as Managing Director, Foster's Americas;

- Peter Jackson will continue as Managing Director, Foster's EMEA;

Chief Supply Officer - Michael Brooks, currently Director Commercial Services and Capability, will oversee production, logistics and procurement across all product groups to drive greater efficiency, speed to market, and product quality.
Chief Marketing Officer - Rick Scully, currently Managing Director Foster's Brewing International, will drive marketing and brand strategy for all global brands, work with regional marketing teams to define local execution priorities, and lead an innovative, world-class marketing organisation.
Chief Strategy Officer - David Bortolussi will continue to lead the Group Strategy team, and will develop global alliances, and manage all acquisition and divestment activities.

The following roles will continue on the Foster's Leadership Team:

Chief Financial Officer - will assume responsibility for Corporate Affairs and Communications, in addition to existing responsibilities for Finance, Information Technology, Tax, and Investor Relations. Pete Scott will continue in this role.
Chief Human Resources Officer - Ben Lawrence (formally Senior Vice President Human Resources) will continue to drive global people strategy. Ben will also continue to oversee the Wine Clubs and Wine Services businesses, which will operate under their current trading names.
Chief Legal Officer & Company Secretary - Martin Hudson, currently Chief Legal Counsel & Senior Vice President Commercial Affairs, will continue to lead Commercial Affairs, now to encompass Government, Industry & Community in addition to Legal, Risk and Compliance.

For further information please contact:

Media
Troy Hey
Tel: +61 3 9633 2085
Mob: 0409 709 126

Investor
Chris Knorr
Tel: +61 3 9633 2685
Mob: 0417 033 623

Foster's Restructures for Growth (PDF, 209 Kb)