This morning, Lark Distilling Co has announced the appointment of Stuart Gregor, Four Pillars’ Co-Founder and Global Trade Director, as an independent Non-Executive Director as the company looks to further expand its international footprint. Starting tomorrow, Gregor will assume the position on the Board currently held by Laura McBain following her resignation precipitated in the company’s last Annual General Meeting.
"We are pleased to welcome Stuart to the Lark Board at a time the Company positions itself for its next phase of growth,” said Domenic Panaccio, Chair of the Board.
“Stuart's deep and long industry experience working with many of the world's most successful drinks businesses will be invaluable to Lark as we focus on building long term brand value in all markets, generating international sales momentum and building upon our domestic leadership position.”
McBain added that, “whilst we have had success in growing the Lark brand domestically and the whisky bank, the Board and the Lark team are focussed on the next phase of growing the brand and distribution of Lark internationally. I am confident that the Company has the right strategy and team in place to successfully execute upon this strategy."
Laura McBain joined Lark as a Non-Executive Director in May 2020. She then served as Lark’s Interim Managing Director from February 2022 to May 2023 up until Satya Sharma was appointed as permanent CEO.
"It has been a privilege to serve as both a Non-Executive Director and Interim Managing Director at Lark,” said McBain.
Domenic Panaccio added, “Laura has always displayed high levels of commitment, dedication and commercial acumen and we all wish her well with her future endeavours."
The Board member change-up and renewed export market focus follows on from a challenging year for Lark Distilling Co, which saw sales revenue down 18% due to the slowdown of China’s indirect export market and of sales of old one-off releases in other channels. FY24 also saw various significant changes at Lark Distilling, including a $22.5 million capital raising, announcing Seppeltsfield Wines as a new strategic partner, and appointing Spirits Platform as its new domestic distributor.
Despite this, CEO Sash Sharma said the company “closed FY24 with good momentum, achieving a number of important milestones for both our domestic and export businesses.”
Now, moving forwards, Lark has established three main goals for the upcoming year: to build long term brand value, to maintain international sales momentum and its domestic leadership position, and to demonstrate cash and capital discipline.
The appointment of Stuart McGregor as an independent Non-Executive Director, along with the resignation of Laura McBain, will take effect from tomorrow 1 October.
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