McMillan Grills Whisky Chiefs

Stuart McMillan MSP, a member of the Scottish Parliament's Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee has today questioned Diageo boss Paul Donaghy over the loss of 900 jobs in Glasgow and Kilmarnock despite spending £400 million on advertising and promotion.

Donaghy was giving evidence at the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee along with John Beard, chief executive of Whyte and MacKay, which is also cutting 71 jobs in Scotland. Mr McMillan took them to task over their advertising budgets, especially the millions of pounds spent on adverising in Formula 1 every year.

Mr McMillan asked; "In terms of the restructuring, how do the both of you justify to your employees that are about to lose their positions signing deals for advertising with Formula 1 teams?"

Stuart went on to say; "There could be a perception that it's the people in Scotland, the workforce in Scotland, which is going to suffer because of other external factors, as well as additional money going to promote the product and particularly the Indian market - ie the promotion in Formula 1."

Afterwards Stuart noted; "Whilst I fully accept that organisations have an obligation to promote their businesses, I feel that such largesse in advertising budgets is unacceptable when hundreds of workers are losing thier jobs in Scotland. I believe that money could have been spent on keeping these loyal employees in work instead of spending millions advertising in Formula 1."