Diageo

Founded in year
1997

How many employees
20,000

In which regions does the food company operate?
The marketing, sales and distribution of Diageo’s brands are organised across four geographic regions: Diageo North America; Diageo Europe; Diageo International, which includes Diageo Latin America & Caribbean and Diageo Africa; and Diageo Asia-Pacific.

Number of brands
34

5 Biggest brands
Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Baileys

Introduction
Diageo is a global alcoholic beverages company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s largest producer of spirits and a major producer of beer and wine. Its brands include Smirnoff (the world’s best-selling vodka), Johnnie Walker (the world’s best-selling Scotch whisky), José Cuervo (the world’s best-selling tequila), Baileys (the world’s best-selling liqueur) and Guinness (the world’s best-selling stout). It also owns 34% of Moët Hennessy, which owns brands including Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and Hennessy. It sells its products in over 180 countries and has offices in 80 countries.

Its primary listing is on the London Stock Exchange and it is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has a secondary listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Fairfood’s role
We began our dialogue with Diageo in 2007 by approaching them for information on the level of sustainability in their supply chains. Diageo informed us of their Supplier Performance Management (SPM) programme involving a 4-stage assessment process and scorecards for managing social and ethical risks in their supply chains. We recognise this as a positive step. However, only a limited percentage of suppliers are audited and this information is unavailable to the public. As transparency is central to our approach to sustainability, we hope that the auditing information will be publicly available in the future.

Diageo has also identified four priority sourcing materials on which to focus their sustainable agriculture strategy: sugarcane, cream, malting barley and sorghum. Fairfood applauds Diageo’s recent commitment to source all sustainable cream. Although the standards and extent of these commitments are still unclear, we are pleased to see clear public commitments from the company. With regards to sugar, we support Diageo’s joint membership of Bon Sucro Better Sugarcane Initiative, which we recognise as a viable sustainability measure. However, we encourage Diageo to become a full member. We look forward to Diageo issuing measurable commitments for sugar and the other priority sourcing materials.

Furthermore, we are also pleased that Diageo has made specific environmental commitments including renewable energy for supply sites and 2015 targets for water efficiency, wastewater, carbon emissions, waste to landfill and wastewater pollution.

Current status
Fairfood applauds Diageo’s recent commitment to source sustainable cream. We have also begun engaging Diageo on issues of corruption and tax policy, both elements of our sustainability agenda. Diageo has recently been in the news regarding the Securities and Exchange Commission charges of violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) resulting from improper payments to government officials, via its subsidiaries, to obtain sales and tax benefits. We believe this is to be a critical and opportune time for Diageo to adopt a more transparent and sustainable position with regards to both its anti-corruption and tax policies. Finally, we will continue our dialogue with Diageo to encourage further, holistic sustainability improvements throughout their supply chains and for all of their products.

Link to Wikipedia and other pages relevant to the company
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diageo
http://www.diageo.com

News updates
To Diageo! (15 september 2011)