Q: How do you “unlock potential”?
A: Our products touch millions of lives. We build convivial communities, collaborating with suppliers and with farmers to serve consumers and customers across the world, in full respect of our brands. We create better equity by designing sustainable product superiority. This includes R&D, quality and sustainability, and it’s something we can quantify by looking at the additional net sales generated by delivering bolder efficiencies throughout our integrated end-to-end supply chain. We do this by looking at how we buy better, how we source better, how we plan better and how we design better. We serve by planning and distributing through an agile customer-centric supply chain. We start from the last mile when designing our planning, logistics and customer service to ensure that the consumer gets the right bottle, at the right time, in the right place, and with the minimum impact on the environment.
Q: How do you equip your teams to deliver on this common purpose?
A: It’s about the little things we do and say that empower our people. We invest massively in our teams, making sure they are equipped with the skills they need today but also invest in upskilling our workforce with the skills they will need tomorrow. For example, equipping our employees in the supply chain with AI capabilities so they are ready to adapt and innovate alongside these technologies.
At the same time, we are also building very solid master data systems, which means having the right data available to drive the right decisions, creating the right insights. And finally, we are creating a safe, inclusive, and convivial environment. At Pernod Ricard, we believe there is potential inside everyone. It is about enabling them to embrace their potential and shine, so we can collectively succeed. Together, we are powerful beyond measure.
Q: What are your main challenges?
A: Some of our challenges, like supply chain disruptions or inflation, are linked to specific external factors. Others are generated by new technologies, artificial intelligence in particular. Not embracing AI makes you obsolete, but you need to embrace it ethically and ensure that you understand its impact on the business. And of course, climate change has both an impact on, and is impacted by, what we do in operations, so that is of course a major challenge for us.
Q: What about addressing the challenges of climate change, can you tell us about the progress you’re making?
A: I’m incredibly happy we have embedded the Sustainability & Responsibility function into Operations as it is so directly linked to how we create, make and serve our brands. All our products are made from natural ingredients (grapes, barley, wheat, etc.) that are threatened by the impacts of climate change, and the agriculture sector itself also contributes heavily to carbon emissions.
We have been making great progress to foster the resilience of our business. We are developing solid regenerative agricultural programmes in our own terroirs which we are working to deploy further with our partners. We are also working closely with our suppliers on the decarbonisation of our glass production. Glass is key to our industry, but it’s very energy intensive, so we’re very proud to be recognised by our partners as leaders in this area.
We’ve also made significant investments in energy conservation and reuse in our distillation process, notably with the implementation of mechanical vapor recompression systems (MVR) at our Scottish and Irish distilleries. It is the first time this technology has been used in this way in our industry, and we’ve been sharing our experience with our peers so that these technologies can become more widespread across the sector. Similarly, we have done significant work with our partners to maximise the value of our wastage, such as converting distillation by-product into animal feed, fertiliser or energy. We have ambitious targets related to reducing carbon, the circular economy and biodiversity preservation.
These are just some of the examples of the progress we’re making to drive a more circular world thanks to the unwavering engagement of our people and all our stakeholders.
