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The Artisanal Spirits Company (ASC) has appointed Billy McCarter as chief financial officer, with immediate effect.
It follows a search initiated by CEO Andrew Dane after taking up the top role in Jannuary for a long-term CFO.
McCarter, a qualified accountant, joined the group 15 months ago and has served as interim finance director.
He has extensive experience in the whisky and spirits industry after spending eight years with drinks giant Diageo.
ASC also announced in the stock exchange statement this morning that it had appointed business development director Chris Leggat to the executive team.
Leggat joins from Douglas Laing & Co, the independent Scotch whisky blending and bottling specialist, where he was chief executive for the past five years. He joined Douglas Laing as commercial director in 2014.
Chairman Mark Hunter said: “ASC is delighted to have been able to promote Billy McCarter to the role of CFO and to the board from our existing, strong pool of internal talent.
“Following the promotion of Andrew Dane to the position of CEO earlier in 2023, the internal appointment of Billy demonstrates the strength in depth of the talent within ASC.
“Since joining the group in February 2022, Billy has demonstrated his value to the organisation and has driven forward leadership of the finance function, whilst demonstrating very strong analytical and leadership skills.
“He is an excellent addition to the board. We also look forward to welcoming Chris Leggat to the executive team who has highly relevant experience in the spirits industry, and whisky segment in particular.
“I, together with the other directors, very much look forward to working closely with both Billy and Chris as ASC progresses its stated strategy to unlock its significant future growth opportunity.”
ASC curates a collection of single-cask and limited-edition whisky and owns the The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, which currently has a worldwide membership of more than 37,400 paying members.
The group floated on London’s junior AIM market in 2021 with a market cap of £78m.
In the year to date, its shares are up 33% to 98.1p, but remain down on the 112p offer price.
Morning update
The FTSE 100 opens down 0.3% to 7,728.55pts on a quiet morning for fmcg news.
Early risers include Nichols, up 3.9% to 1,060p, PayPoint, up 1.8% to 434.5p, Hotel Chocolat, up 1.5% to 170p, and SSP Group, up 1.2% to 264.6p.
THG, McBride and Marks & Spencer are down 3.5% to 59.5p, 3.3% to 30.8p and 1.8% to 162p respectively.
Yesterday in the City
The FTSE 100 slipped back 0.3% to 7,751.08pts yesterday.
Shares in Britvic increased 1.2% to 939.3p as the drinks group a boost in first-half profits.
Greggs, however, didn’t enjoy a positive enjoy as the stock slid 3.1% lower to 2,756.5p despite surging Q1 sales growth as inflation proved stickier than hoped.
Tobacco giant Imperial Brands also fell 1.8% to 1,839.5p even as the group posted resilient first-half numbers, but investors fretted over the long term.
Other fallers included Virgin Wines UK and Science in Sport, down 4.7% to 32.9p and 5.7% to 12.5p respectively.
Hilton Food and Deliveroo were among the risers, up 1.8% to 727p and 2.2% to 110p respectively.
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