Spirits maker Campari saw its shares rise more than 520% under the 16-year tenure of retiring Chief Executive Officer Bob Kunze-Concewitz, who oversaw a surge in demand from European and US drinkers for the company’s namesake product.
Amid a revival for Italian cocktails including the Negroni and Aperol Spritz, the gains in Davide Campari-Milano NV since Kunze-Concewitz’s May 2007 appointment as CEO far outpace the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, up 16%, and Italy’s benchmark FTSE MIB, which has declined 35% over the same period through Monday.
Read More: Campari CEO Who Led Aperol Revival Steps Down After 16 Years
Campari shares fell as much as 6.1% on Tuesday on the announcement that Kunze-Concewitz was stepping down. He will retire effective in April, and Matteo Fantacchiotti, the company’s managing director for the Asia-Pacific region, will take on the role of deputy CEO effective immediately. He’ll then take over as CEO in April.
Replacing Kunze-Concewitz with an internal appointment “enables continuity of a strategy that has seen the business gain “share of throat,” said Duncan Fox, Bloomberg Intelligence consumer-product analyst. He added that Fantacchiotti heads Asia, which “at just 3% of revenue should be the main growth engine” in the future.
--With assistance from Jan-Patrick Barnert.
