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Campari’s £25.7m ‘thank you’ to Kunze-Concewitz

12 April 2024 By Ron Emler

Campari’s Bob Kunze-Concewitz formally ends his 17 years as chief executive of Davide Campari Milano with a massive €30m (£25.7m) “thank you” payment from the board and the group’s shareholders.

That is the maximum to which he is entitled under the company’s Last Mile incentive bonus scheme and was fully accrued in the 2023 accounts.

He already holds shares worth €4.5m At the annual general meeting the board thanked him for his “remarkable leadership and exceptional service” as he stepped down to hand over to Matteo Fantacchiotti.

Kunze-Concewitz is not severing all links with Campari, however, as he is becoming a non-executive director.

In his 17 years as head of Campari. Kunze-Concewitz transformed it from essentially the biggest player in Italian aperitifs to a significant presence on the beverage alcohol world stage.

Courvoisier

This was underlined earlier this year by his final flourish, the $US1.32bn deal to buy Courvoisier from Beam Suntory, the biggest takeover in Campari’s history.

Under Kunze-Concewitz’s leadership Campari’s net sales and profitability more than tripled through both organic growth and acquisitions.

He conducted a string of 27 acquisitions (before Courvoisier, which completes later this year) for an overall investment of €3 billion.

Apart from the transformative Courvoisier deal, the flagship achievement was probably the purchase of Aperol in 2007, since when its net sales have risen 12-fold to become the group’s largest brand.

International

He also transformed Campari’s international footprint by expanding it from six to 25 in-market subsidiary companies which now deliver approximately 93% of its sales.

As its volumes and global reach increased, Kunze-Concewitz expanded the company’s production from nine sites around the world to 23.

Since May 2007, Campari’s market capitalisation has increased more than five times to about €11.2 billion, and its annual total shareholder returns growth of 13% make it one of the most successful drinks investments over that period.

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