LOUISVILLE, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Brown-Forman (NYSE: BFA) (NYSE: BFB) announced today the restructuring of its Asia Pacific (APAC) region into two new regions, effective November 1, 2013. The existing Asia Pacific region will be restructured into the Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia region (ANZSEA) and the North Asia region (NA). Michael McShane will serve as managing director, ANZSEA, based in Sydney, and Trevor Smith as managing director, NA, based in Hong Kong.
"The Asia Pacific area remains key to Brown-Forman's long-term growth strategy," said Mark McCallum, executive vice president, Europe/Africa/Asia Pacific/Travel Retail, Brown-Forman Corporation. "These changes are being made to further strengthen our organizational focus and allocation of resources against our strategic priorities in this vast region.”
McShane and Smith are long-standing Brown-Forman executives with considerable experience in the Asia Pacific arena.
McShane most recently served as senior vice president, managing director, Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong. He has held a number of positions within Brown-Forman, including managing director, North Asia, and managing director, Australia. McShane also served as the chairman of the Distilled Spirits Industry Council of Australia and is an active participant in industry forums across the Asia Pacific region.
Smith most recently served as vice president, director, finance, Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong, and as a key member of the APAC leadership team. Smith has held a number of leadership positions at Brown-Forman, including director of Internal Audit.
Marshall Farrer, current managing director of Australia, New Zealand, will return to the company’s Louisville, KY, headquarters later this year after four successful years at the helm of the company's second largest market as measured by net sales.
For more than 140 years, Brown-Forman Corporation has enriched the experience of life by responsibly building fine quality beverage alcohol brands, including Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey, Southern Comfort, Finlandia, Jack Daniel’s & Cola, Canadian Mist, Korbel, Gentleman Jack, el Jimador, Herradura, Sonoma-Cutrer, Chambord, New Mix, Tuaca, and Woodford Reserve. Brown-Forman’s brands are supported by nearly 4,000 employees and sold in approximately 160 countries worldwide. For more information about the company, please visit http://www.brown-forman.com/.
This press release contains statements, estimates, and projections that are "forward-looking statements" as defined under U.S. federal securities laws. Words such as “aim,” “anticipate,” “aspire,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “envision,” “estimate,” “expect,” “expectation,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “project,” “pursue,” “see,” “will,” “will continue,” and similar words identify forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date we make them. Except as required by law, we do not intend to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors (many beyond our control) that could cause our actual results to differ materially from our historical experience or from our current expectations or projections. These risks and other factors include, but are not limited to:
- Unfavorable global or regional economic conditions, and related low consumer confidence, high unemployment, weak credit or capital markets, sovereign debt defaults, sequestrations, austerity measures, higher interest rates, political instability, higher inflation, deflation, lower returns on pension assets, or lower discount rates for pension obligations
- Risks associated with being a U.S.-based company with global operations, including political or civil unrest; local labor policies and conditions; protectionist trade policies; compliance with local trade practices and other regulations, including anti-corruption laws; terrorism; and health pandemics
- Fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates
- Changes in laws, regulations or policies - especially those that affect the production, importation, marketing, sale or consumption of our beverage alcohol products
- Tax rate changes (including excise, sales, VAT, tariffs, duties, corporate, individual income, dividends, capital gains) or changes in related reserves, changes in tax rules (e.g., LIFO, foreign income deferral, U.S. manufacturing and other deductions) or accounting standards, and the unpredictability and suddenness with which they can occur
- Dependence upon the continued growth of the Jack Daniel’s family of brands
- Changes in consumer preferences, consumption or purchase patterns - particularly away from brown spirits, our premium products, or spirits generally, and our ability to anticipate and react to them; decline in the social acceptability of beverage alcohol products in significant markets; bar, restaurant, travel or other on-premise declines
- Production facility, aging warehouse or supply chain disruption; imprecision in supply/demand forecasting
- Higher costs, lower quality or unavailability of energy, input materials or finished goods
- Route-to-consumer changes that affect the timing of our sales, temporarily disrupt the marketing or sale of our products, for result in implementation-related or higher fixed costs
- Inventory fluctuations in our products by distributors, wholesalers, or retailers
- Competitors’ consolidation or other competitive activities, such as pricing actions (including price reductions, promotions, discounting, couponing or free goods), marketing, category expansion, product introductions, entry or expansion in our geographic markets or distribution networks
- Risks associated with acquisitions, dispositions, business partnerships or investments - such as acquisition integration, or termination difficulties or costs, or impairment in recorded value
- Insufficient protection of our intellectual property rights
- Product counterfeiting, tampering, or recall, or product quality issues
- Significant legal disputes and proceedings; government investigations (particularly of industry or company business, trade or marketing practices)
- Failure or breach of key information technology systems
- Negative publicity related to our company, brands, marketing, personnel, operations, business performance or prospects
- Business disruption, decline or costs related to organizational changes, reductions in workforce or other cost-cutting measures, or our failure to attract or retain key executive or employee talent
For further information on these and other risks, please refer to the “Risk Factors” section of our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC.
Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information This press release includes measures not derived in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”), including constant currency net sales, underlying net sales and underlying operating income. These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for any measure derived in accordance with GAAP, and also may be inconsistent with similar measures presented by other companies. Reconciliations of these measures to the most closely comparable GAAP measures, and reasons for the company’s use of these measures, are presented on Schedule A attached hereto.