Ann Mukherjee’s role atop spirits maker Pernod Ricard’s $3 billion-a-year North America business might initially seem like any other CEO appointment. She’s laser-focused on acquiring new booze brands and building market share for the company’s 240 premium brands like Glenlivet and Absolut. Nothing too out of the ordinary—or so one would think.
But alcohol has played a central role in the most tragic events in her life. When she was a teen, a drunk driver killed her mother. A few years before that, a drunk man sexually assaulted her. So it may come as a surprise that she’s now spearheading and even promoting the sale and consumption of alcohol decades later.
But as CEO of Pernod Ricard, the second-largest wine-and-spirits company by global sales, Mukherjee has made responsibly consuming boozy libations a cornerstone of her promotional messaging, going further than the pro forma small print admonishments of most alcohol products brands.
Among other initiatives, Pernod Ricard launched a “Safe Nights” campaign in Dallas in late 2021, honoring bars and restaurants that take extra measures to ensure patrons’ safety and deploying “sidewalk ambassadors” to diffuse potentially violent altercations by drunk people. The company is rolling out the initiative in other cities.
Mukherjee, who has been CEO since 2019, waves off any suggestion there’s a contradiction between this role and previous jobs in her career, like selling chips at PepsiCo or candy Kraft, because she’s always preached responsible consumption. She’s no killjoy, she says. “If this were a world that only serviced needs and not wants, it would be a tough world to live in. My entire career has been about helping people enjoy life, but doing it in a responsible way, with moderation,” she says.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Fortune: The pandemic provided the alcohol industry with a big boom. What consumer behaviors have remained?
Making cocktails became an in-home activity during the pandemic because you’d normally go to a restaurant for cocktail consumption. Based on previous crises, we would have expected consumption to shift back to restaurants and bars, but in-home consumption has remained strong. A huge part of our growth has been the focus on convenience. Post-pandemic, we’ve seen a surge in spirit-based ready-to-drink cocktails and people looking for a high-quality cocktail they can have instantly.
You’ve been pretty open about your disdain for liquor stores, which you depend on for a big portion of business. What don’t you like about them?
As a shopper, especially a woman, I can’t stand them. You go to today’s world of retailing—a Costco or Trader Joe’s—and it’s about discovery. But you walk into many liquor stores, and they’re often not in the best parts of town because many people don’t want a liquor store near their home, and it’s a very traditional approach of ‘stack ’em high.’ So you come in as a woman, and it’s dark, dingy, and unsafe. You’ve got all these bottles on the shelf, and they’re hard to reach. Are we still in the 1930s? There is a lot of modernity that needs to come into liquor retailing. Before COVID, the industry was growing by 5%. If we unlock modernity, it can grow even faster. We just have to make it more appealing.
To be fair, there are lots of lovely wine stores.
They are more shoppable because of the selection and how it is beautifully merchandised. But if you walk into a spirits liquor store, they’re not as beautifully presented as with wine. Some retailers do it very well, like Total Wine & More. It’s a discovery experience, they educate you, and the choice is limitless, so it can be done. It’s been proven. It’s just a question of the industry investing behind it.
Pernod Ricard has over 240 brands. What’s still missing in your portfolio?
Honestly, very little. We just made two very big acquisitions. One of our top areas of growth is our agave portfolio, and we just bought the tequila brand Codigo to match Del Maguey, which is the No. 1 mezcal spirit. The other acquisition is Skrewball (March 2023). Flavored whiskey is huge and growing faster than non-flavored whiskey.
What is your favorite Pernod Ricard product?
It depends on the context. On a Friday date night with my husband, I’ll have a very dirty Absolute martini with blue cheese olives. But on Saturday nights with friends, we bring out the Scotch or the Glenlivet, sit around, and have a great time. That’s how consumers drink. They don’t drink one thing over and over again. It’s about having a portfolio of powerful brands for each occasion.
You are CEO of Pernod Ricard North America, generating 30% of company sales. Do you ever feel hamstrung by the fact that it’s still the CEO in Paris who ultimately calls the shots?
Before coming here, I was very picky about where I would go. One of the main reasons I came to Pernod Ricard was that my boss, CEO and global chairman Alex Ricard, is an incredible leader who trusts us and lets us run our businesses. And when he says North America is the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 priority, he puts his money where his mouth is. Over the past few years, he’s invested almost a billion dollars in M&A. We spent a ton of money building the first carbon-neutral American whiskey distillery. This has been a place where I can spread my wings and do what’s right from a values perspective.
Let’s talk about your personal history and your role at a major alcoholic beverage maker. How do you make peace with that?
I’ve worked in salt (PepsiCo), I’ve worked in sugar (Kraft Heinz), and I’m now working in alcohol. Here’s the thing: If this were a world that only serviced needs and not wants, it would be a tough world to live in. My entire career has been about helping people enjoy life but doing it in a responsible way, with moderation. Because of my background, this was a personal cause, and I felt the universe was trying to tell me something. Losing my mother was the greatest loss of my life, and no one, and I mean no one, should have to go through that. That’s why I’m here. It’s important to advocate for the responsible use of products.
So how are you trying to change behaviors?
I am very clear: If you’re buying our products as a weapon, we don’t want your business. So it starts with being declarative about what you stand for and against. At the end of the day, human beings have to take responsibility for their behavior. But industries have to do everything in their power to make sure that people can make responsible choices.
Get to know Mukherjee:
- Mukherjee was known as the “Queen of Corn” at PepsiCo, where she worked for a decade, because she was in charge of its corn chip brands.
- She has a bachelor’s degree in religious theology from the University of Chicago and did her thesis on the Apostle Paul.
- Mukherjee was the first external CEO ever hired at Pernod Ricard.
