Diageo has appointed the former head of Tesco Sir Dave Lewis as its new CEO and executive director.

The move concludes the Guinness and Johnnie Walker owner’s search for a successor following Debra Crew’s departure in July.

Lewis takes on the role as of January next year. Interim CEO Nik Jhangiani will lead the company through December and then return to his former CFO position, Diageo said in a statement today (10 November).

Deirdre Mahlan, who returned to Diageo as interim CFO in July, will continue to support the transition.

Commenting on the appointment, John Manzoni, Diageo’s chair, said: “Having conducted an extensive and thorough global search, the board unanimously felt that Dave has both the extensive CEO experience, and the proven leadership skills in building and marketing world-leading brands, that is right for Diageo at this time.”

Lewis led the British retail chain Tesco as group CEO from 2014 to 2020. He also spent almost three decades at Unilever, where he held executive committee roles overseeing marketing and business performance.

He has also chaired consumer healthcare company Haleon since its formation in 2022 and works as a non-executive director at PepsiCo.

The Captain Morgan producer said Lewis will step down from Haleon on 31 December 2025 ahead of assuming his new post at the start 2026.

Lewis said: “Diageo is a world leading business with a portfolio of very strong brands, and I am delighted to be joining the team. The market faces some headwinds but there are also significant opportunities.

“I look forward to working with the team to face these challenges and realise some of the opportunities in a way which creates shareholder value.”

The leadership update follows Diageo’s revised sales and profit guidance issued last week.

In a trading statement for its fiscal first quarter, the distiller said it expected organic net sales growth “to be flat to slightly down”.

Diageo pointed to “the adverse impact from Chinese white spirits and a weaker US consumer environment than originally planned for”.

The group had previously forecast its organic net sales growth would be “at a similar level” to its previous financial year, with growth sitting more in the second half of the year. It had also expected its organic operating profit to grow by “mid-single digit”.

It now expects this growth to sit between “low to mid-single digit”.

For the three months ended 30 September, the Don Julio distiller booked flat organic net sales on 2024, while they declined 2.2% on a reported basis to $4.9bn.

In Diageo’s North America business, organic net sales were down 2.7% at $1.84bn. The unit, which makes up 38% of the company’s total sales, saw its organic net sales being hit by “a challenging environment across consumer goods”.