Alliance appoints two new board members

By Lisa Riley

Published: 09 June, 2021

Alliance Wine has added two new members to its board of directors, effective immediately.

Ned Llewellyn has been appointed off-trade sales director while Linda McGowan has taken on the role of operations director, both newly created roles.

The pair brought a “wealth of experience” from their previous roles within the business, said Alliance Wine.

Llewellyn joined Alliance nearly 10 years ago, and was soon promoted running the wholesale sales team for the last seven. Having worked previously at Charles Taylor Wines he has amassed over 16 years of experience in the wine trade with a real focus on the independent off-trade sector.

McGowan has a total 26 year’s experience in a variety of operation and supply roles and joined Alliance six years ago from William Grant & Sons.

“These additions to the board are very welcome and come at a time when the whole business is expanding on many fronts and eyeing ambitious growth,” said CEO Fergal Tynan MW.

”Both Linda and Ned have proved themselves most valuable in their current roles and we have high hopes for the potential they bring to board level discussions and activity,” he said.

Moreover, the appointments would allow on-trade sales director Miriam Spiers to "devote far more time” to the on-trade, “getting closer to our key customers and working with the channel in general to give support and help build back hospitality”, she said.

“As our business continues to grow there is a need for more resource at all levels to help us maximise the potential we have identified. With these appointments we will be able to achieve more, adding large amounts of value and benefit to the business, but more importantly to our customers.”

Having ended its financial year 20/21with just over £31m in turnover, marginally above previous year, despite being without the on trade (one of its key channels), Alliance was headed into the new financial year “filled with confidence, energy and excitement”, added Tynan.

“The last year has been extraordinarily tough on everyone involved in the hospitality industry. We dug deep and tried to be proactive and flexible in everything we did to weather the storm and we are now looking to the future and investing in it with new roles, people and developing our structure to grow and support our customers as they return to trading.

“There are more challenges on the horizon, but we believe we are well prepared to tackle what the future holds.”

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