AB InBev appoints Coke marketer Nick Robinson as UK marketing director

Nick Robinson: joining AB InBev as UK marketing director
Nick Robinson: joining AB InBev as UK marketing director

AB InBev has appointed Coca-Cola marketer Nick Robinson to the role of marketing director for its UK and Ireland business.

Robinson, who was most recently Coke’s marketing director for Germany, will oversee AB InBev’s portfolio of drinks brands, including Stella Artois and Budweiser.

Robinson has experience in the alcoholic drinks business, having also worked at Diageo, as marketing director of Guinness.

He replaces Jean-Jacques Velkeniers, who has been made AB InBev’s vice-president of marketing for Europe, replacing Andreas Hilger, who left the group earlier this year.

Velkeniers said: "With his vast experience and expertise in marketing, we are delighted that Nick is joining AB InBev.

"Nick joins us at an exciting time, with the opportunity to build further on the success of our brands in the UK, following a great summer with Stella Artois’s sponsorship of both Wimbledon and The Open Championships, plus of course, Budweiser’s partnership with the Fifa World Cup."

Robinson added: "I’m delighted to have joined AB InBev UK, a company which I greatly admire, and was attracted to for many reasons, including its focus on being a truly consumer-centric organisation with an enviable portfolio of market leading brands, but most importantly because of its focus on its people as its greatest assets, creating a unique culture and competitive advantage."

AB InBev said that its brands performed strongly in the first half of 2014. "Own products grew by 13.5% in Q2 and by 8.1% in HY14 (first half of 2014) due to strong World Cup volumes," the company said, adding that market share for Budweiser and Stella grew on- and off-trade.



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