Who is ‘Drastic Dave’, the man sent to save Diageo?
Diageo shareholders breathed a sigh of relief this morning after the FTSE 100 drinks giant unveiled the appointment of its new chief executive, Sir Dave Lewis.
Shares rose 7.5 per cent in morning trading to 1,856 pence following the selection of the retail and consumer goods veteran, rebounding from their sharp drop last Thursday following the group’s latest trading update.
The Board appointed Sir Dave to the role of both chief executive and executive director as of 1 January 2026, crediting the decision to his “outstanding track record” leading global consumer businesses.
Sir John Manzioni, Diageo’s Chair, said: “The Board unanimously felt that Dave has both the extensive CEO experience and the proven leadership skills in building and marketing world-leading brands that is right for Diageo at this time.”
But who is the man dubbed ‘Drastic Dave’?
Tesco turn around and Unilever cuts
Lewis, who was knighted in 2021 for services to the food industry, was chief executive of Tesco from 2014 to 2020, taking over during a time when the supermarket was widely regarded as having lost its way.
Before Lewis took the helm of Britain’s biggest supermarket, billions of pounds were wiped off its value after a botched growth strategy eroded the trust of shareholders.
Sales were damaged by a series of setbacks including the so-called ‘horsemeat scandal’, a major accounting disgrace involving overstated profits and a muddled response to the rise of cheaper prices from fast-growing competitors Aldi and Lidl.
Despite having never worked in retail, Lewis ultimately brought the supermarket’s fortunes back around.
He prioritised improving customer service, repairing relations with suppliers and engaging with disgruntled employees in his bid to fix the supermarket’s reputation, yielding impressive results.
During his tenure, he halved Tesco’s debt pile by £22bn, while the stock climbed 67.8 per cent to 377 pence by the time he moved on.
However, it was three decades at Unilever that first earned Lewis his nickname, reflecting his relentless pursuit of cost-cutting that saw the number of products produced by the consumer goods company fall from 1,600 to 400, while headcount was also reduced significantly.
These actions led to a 40 per cent reduction in group expenditure in 2007.
Expectations and concerns
Now, analysts are praising the Guinness owner’s decision to bring in “Mr Fixit” after five years away from the chief executive world.
Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell said if Sir Dave could “pull off a second business recovery of this scale and he’ll become a legend in the business world.
“This is a significant hire and a pleasant surprise. The seven per cent share price jump on the news says it all.”
However, some have expressed scepticism in his appointment, due to his lack of experience in the spirits industry, with Chris Beckett, consumer staples analyst as Quilter Cheviot, calling it an “interesting move”.
He said, “Lewis’s experience is not in the spirits industry and is instead in more mainstream fast-moving consumer goods, not at the higher discretionary, aspirational end where customers are spending several hundred dollars for a bottle of spirits.”
“While this is not to say he won’t be able to gain it, he will not enter the role with the experience of Diageo’s distribution model, particularly in the US and spirits.”
Despite calling it a “good appointment” he acknowledged the move “raises a few new risks” that promoting the interim team would have avoided.