Ex-Chief Executive of Cadbury Schweppes joins board at Cotswolds Distillery

Sir Dominic Cadbury, previously Chief Executive and Chairman of Cadbury Schweppes, has joined the board of directors at Cotswolds Distillery. Sir Dominic, who lives locally to the distillery, is their second key appointment to the board, following the addition of Richard Watling, former CEO of Justerini & Brooks.

Dan Szor, Founder and CEO of Cotswolds Distillery, said, “We are delighted to welcome Sir Dominic to the board. He brings a huge amount of experience and will add enormous value to the board as the distillery moves into its next chapter.”

Sir Dominic joined Cadbury Schweppes in 1964 and was appointed to the board there in 1975. He was Group Chief Executive from 1983 to 1993 and then served as Chairman until his retirement in May 2000. His previous non-executive positions include serving as Chairman of The Economist Group and the Wellcome Trust. He held the position of Chancellor of the University of Birmingham for 11 years and is currently a trustee of the Heart of England Community Foundation, which helps to fund community projects across the West Midlands.

Sir Dominic

Sir Dominic said, “I am delighted to be joining the Cotswolds Distillery Board and look forward to contributing to their plans to grow this exciting young business.”

The Cotswolds Distillery, which was named World’s Best Craft Whisky Distillery 2018, has seen rapid growth in the past year, completing a funding round which raised £3 million in April. The funding has allowed the company to break ground this month on the construction of a new visitor centre at the distillery. It has also seen the company expand their senior management teams; in October Stan Owen join the distillery in the newly created position of Finance Director and Debs Carter joined the company as Head of Marketing in August.  

Notes 

The Cotswolds Distillery:

Located in Stourton, Shipston-on-Stour, the distillery has become a premier local attraction, offering tours and tastings daily, and now receives 30,000 visitors a year.

Cotswolds Single Malt Whisky was launched in October 2017. Each bottle lists the barley variety, harvest year and local Cotswolds farm it was grown on. It recently won Gold at the New York World Wine & Spirits Competition and took 2 stars (one of only two whiskies to do so) in the 2018 Great Taste Awards.

Cotswolds Single Malt Whisky is available nationally and in 12 countries across the world. Key UK retailers include Majestic Wine, The Whisky Exchange and Laithwaites.

The distillery also produces Cotswolds Dry Gin, which was named Best London Dry at the 2016 World Gin Awards and received the top Gold Outstanding award in the 2017 International Wine and Spirits Competition. Difford’s Guide recently ranked the Gin as one of the top 20 Gins available in a survey of 450 brands.

Cotswolds Dry Gin is on sale nationally and in over 23 countries.  Key national accounts include Waitrose & Partners, Majestic, Oddbins, Laithwaites, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, and Fortnum & Mason.

For more information, please visit www.cotswoldsdistillery.com.