Taking on the helm at the spirits and beer giant on January 1, Lewis has already set out areas for immediate change.
The company reported lacklustre results in the six months up to December 31, 2025, with organic sales down 2.8%. And the company has lowered its sales and profit expectations for the year.
It’s the continuation of a bad run for Diageo: which has struggled to recover after overestimating inventory in Latin America post-pandemic and wider structural challenges in alcohol spending.
Enter Drastic Dave.
Marketing and brand building expertise from decades at Unilever and Tesco
With his experience including six years leading Tesco (2014-2020) and nearly 30 years at Unilever before that, Lewis has become known for no half-measures: hence the nickname, ‘Drastic Dave’.
Announcing his appointment last November, Diageo highlighted his “outstanding track record leading global consumer businesses, growing world-class brands, and providing operational and financial rigour”.
Shareholders are expecting results.
Diageo was led by industry and company stalwart Sir Ivan Menezes from 2013 to 2023 (Menezes had joined the company in 1997 and worked for Guinness before that). Over this period, Diageo reaped the rewards of powerful brands such as Guinness, Bailey’s, Johnnie Walker, Tanqueray, Smirnoff and many more.
His death, just a couple of weeks before his planned retirement, saw Debra Crew come in as CEO. Last year, she stepped down by ‘mutual agreement’: with her leadership marred by post-COVID inventory struggles and a shock profits warning.
A global search saw the company choose Dave Lewis: hoping that ‘Drastic Dave’ can execute drastic measures to revive the company’s fortunes.
Lewis delivered a bucket-full of bad news to investors at Diageo’s H1 earnings call: including a dividend cut and reduced expectations, while he wasted no words in outlining what he sees going wrong at the company.
But the chief executive appears to be getting the bad news out of the way: and he’s revealed his three things he wants to see change immediately while he plots out his strategy for the company.
Priority 1: ‘Competitive category strategies’
Lewis’ first priority is ‘competitive category strategies winning with relevant brands’: perhaps a bit of a mouthful, but he says the words are chosen deliberately.
Diageo’s focus has always been on its powerful brands: Lewis wants to add in a more holistic view of the categories they operate in.
“I want to keep the focus on outstanding brands, but I’d like to add the category lens,” he said.
“It’s how our customers think and buy. It’s how our consumers navigate their off-trade purchases. And it’s the lens through which we can focus and leverage our innovation resources.”
‘Relevant brands’ means looking at what’s affordable to today’s consumers: who are feeling the economic pressures and may not be able to shell out on the same premium brands they used to.
“We’ll continue to invest in the premium portfolio, being, no doubt, a massive asset. But we will also, in addition, explore new portfolio opportunities,” he said.
That could mean some price re-positioning or exploring options like smaller pack formats.
Priority 2: ‘Customer, customer, customer’
Many alcohol brands are built in the on-trade.
But the off-trade is still a significant sales channel, and one that doesn’t have all the power it needs behind it. As Lewis said, the company’s customer service is “frankly really very poor”.
An example of this has been repeated shortages of Guinness in the UK, but the problem goes beyond that.
“The systems and processes that we have in place that facilitate the engagements with our customers are just not fit for purpose,” he said. “If I told you that 60% of all the orders that Diageo enters are entered manually, it would give you some semblance for how developed those processes are.”
He will set about building business plans for how Diageo develops its business and executes it effectively.
Priority 3: Redesign Diageo’s operating framework
Diageo employs around 30,000 people around the word, operating in more than 135 countries: meaning that the size and complexity of its operations can be a challenge.
“The feedback inside of Diageo is really very loud that we could improve the clarity of our operations: global, regional, local,” said Lewis.
“Clear accountability, clear responsibilities; there’s an opportunity for us to be clearer. That clarity will help us in our agility. A lot of the time cycles inside the business are not quick enough and there’s an opportunity for us to design a much more agile Diageo operating framework.”
That also means looking at how Diageo gets innovation from concept to shelf and increasing the impact of new ideas.
And it also means cost cutting. That’s across various areas: such as using AI content creation or concentrating development spend on fewer, bigger opportunities.
