MillerCoors CMO David Kroll Departing 7/27

From Peter Frost & Miller:

MillerCoors Chief Marketing Officer David Kroll is leaving the company effective July 27, according to a memo sent to distributors and employees today by CEO Gavin Hattersley.

Kroll, who spent six years with the company and three as its top marketing executive, will depart to pursue independent business interests, the company said.

MillerCoors has begun a search for Kroll’s replacement, though Hattersley wrote that he “won’t sacrifice finding the right person to satisfy an arbitrary timeline.” In the meantime, Kroll’s team will report directly to the CEO following his departure.

“My immediate priority is to appoint a CMO who will advance our marketing efforts, working decisively and taking bold action to optimize our brand portfolio, with an urgent focus on turning around Coors Light’s performance and capturing more growth in (the) above premium (segment),” Hattersley wrote. “We need healthy brands across all three segments, but we simply cannot get to long-term, profitable growth without significant improvement in Coors Light.”

Kroll, 49, joined MillerCoors in 2012 after spending more than 20 years in marketing and operations for brands including Dyson, Alberto Culver, Wrigley, Procter & Gamble, and Cargill.

During his tenure at Chicago-based MillerCoors, he helped the company “build relevance and respect” for its brands, Hattersley wrote. Among his accomplishments were improving visual identities for some of its key brands; improving Miller Lite’s performance to gain share of the total beer industry; reinvigorating the growing brands Keystone Light and Keystone Ice; and building the company’s above-premium portfolio with brands and innovations including Sol, Henry’s, Crispin Rosé and Arnold Palmer Spiked.

“We will miss David’s passion for our brands,” Hattersley wrote, “but I see this as an opportunity to get a fresh perspective across our portfolio.”