Annual Report 2026 - People

This has been another year of organisational change as Edrington navigates a volatile global environment and our global HR team has responded with a focus on supporting our people and strengthening our capabilities. 

Our strategy and culture are supported by a strong colleague experience, with a focus on enabling people to perform well and develop over time. In the past year we have prioritised by creating career opportunities within our new structure, investing in leadership development and reinforcing our culture. While recruitment has been lower in recent years, we filled almost 400 roles around the world, with almost half being internal appointments. We also facilitated more than 100 talent moves, delivering on our commitment to internal mobility and career progression.

We have continued to expand and embed our leadership development programmes, with almost 600 colleagues taking advantage of programmes at all levels of the organisation.

In a time of change across the industry, I am pleased that Edrington's employee engagement score increased to 76% this year, with 91% of our people sharing their views, narrowing the gap to our top-quartile target.

We continued to make progress on diversity, equity and inclusion, with more than 80% of colleagues saying that they work in an environment that is open and accepting of individual differences. We launched our fourth employee network, Enable, focused on disability and neurodiversity, and continued to make progress on gender representation, with women now holding 42% of senior leadership roles.

Wellbeing continues to be a core priority, with 85% of colleagues aware of the support available through our wellbeing framework and Employee Assistance Programme.

In the year ahead, our focus remains on delivering an excellent colleague experience that supports performance, capability and sustained engagement.