Scottish & Newcastle has appointed a new head of off-trade customer marketing as part of its strategy to grow the off-trade long alcoholic drinks category by £300m over the next five years.

Carol Saunders has been promoted to the position from head of the company's insight and customer excellence team, where she led an 18-month project to develop the new strategy, which was launched last October. She has been with the brewer for the past seven years, joining as ales off-trade sales manager, and previously worked for Coca-Cola.

"Carol's new role is a key appointment aimed at bringing our category vision to life," said UK sales MD off-trade Mark Gerken.

"We are confident she and her team will be able to successfully communicate its potential to our customers in all off-trade channels."

Scottish & Newcastle is currently awaiting a formal offer from joint bidders Carlsberg and Heineken, after holding out for an 800p per share deal. Currently the consortium is offering 780p per share and has until a takeover panel deadline on Monday to make a formal offer. Insiders say shareholders are likely to push for the brewer to accept the bid if a cash offer is made.

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