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Incoming Diageo CEO Debra Crew has started as interim CEO today due to the illness of current CEO Sir Ivan Menezes.

As a result of a health set-back to Menezes over the weekend, Crew has been appointed as interim CEP effective immediately ahead of her official appointment as full-time chief executive on 1 July.

Menezes will retire from the board as planned on 30 June.

Diageo said it a short statement this morning that Menezes is currently in hospital receiving treatment for medical conditions including a stomach ulcer. Over the weekend, his recovery suffered a significant setback due to complications, which followed emergency surgery on the ulcer.

“Our thoughts are with our much-loved colleague, Ivan, and his family,” the group said. “Out of respect for Ivan and his family’s privacy, we will not be commenting further at this time.”

Diageo announced in March than current chief operating officer Crew would take over from Menezes, who was stepping down after a decade in charge.

Prior to being appointed COO in October 2022, Crew was president, Diageo North America and global supply and originally joined the Diageo board as a non-executive director in April 2019, before stepping down from the board when appointed to run its North American business in July 2020.

She is the former president and CEO of Reynolds American and previously spent five years at PepsiCo as well as holding positions with Kraft Foods, Nestlé and Mars.

Morning update

On the markets this morning, the FTSE 100 has opened up 0.5% to 7,641.7pts.

Early risers include Glanbia, up 2.1% to €13.62, Just Eat Takeaway.com, up 1.6% to 1,220p and Hotel Chocolat, up 1.4% to 159.7p.

Fallers so far today include Hilton Food Group, down 2.2% to 672.8p, C&C Group, down 1.4% to 140.6p and THG, down 0.2% to 63.7p.

This week in the City

A quieter week looks in store amid half term holidays.

Tomorrow brings the monthly BRC-KPMG Retail sales figures for May and the interim results of Poundland owner Pepco.

Globally, Campbell Soup Co has its Q3s on Wednesday and Canada’s Saputo issues Q3s on Thursday.

The Deutsche Bank consumer goods conference is taking place in Paris this week, with a number of presentations from global consumer goods firms.

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