The CEO of Carlton & United Breweries has announced that he was stopping the company after the best-selling Great Northern beer was hit by a furious return on a promotion campaign.
Danny Celoni, Chief Executive of Cub's Business Division since 2022, revealed that he leaves the brewer – now owned by the Japanese giant Asahi – to pursue new opportunities.
The announcement comes after drinkers have sworn to boycott Cub's Great Northern Beer – the largest brand in Australia – in a bizarre row on the financing of new national parks.
De Brouwer, who focuses his advertisements on outdoor enthusiasts, started the campaign to raise money to support the new parks on January 15 and intended to carry out them until 31 March.
Great Northern had sworn to match any donation to $ 200,000 when customers gave the Foundation for National Parks and Dieren in the wild.
But the company left the campaign after activist drinkers promised to boycott it and claimed that more national parks would limit access to 4WD vehicles to external places.
On Monday, Asahi – the Japanese giant behind Great Northern – announced that Mr. Celoni had decided to leave the company, but rejected every link to the current protest campaign.
It said that his departure was planned prior to the launch of the Parks campaign and came as a result of a management restructuring within the brewery.
Danny Celoni, Chief Executive of CUB, was already on its way when the big northern debacle soured his exit
Social media blew on when Great Northern broke the hearts of Aussie-Drinkers, a poor imprisonment campaign
“Danny decided to leave the company at the end of last year, after our decision to reorganize the Australian and NZ activities of Asahi,” a spokesperson for Asahi told Daily Mail Australia.
'This was well before the outdoor life for a donation campaign of national parks that we ended last week.
'Danny does not leave because of the abandonment of Great Northern for a Cause campaign.
'As you can appreciate, a significant business reorganization in two countries requires, and where many people are involved, required careful planning for a few months before it is announced.
“Danny decided to leave the company at the end of last year and will continue with the company until the end of June, playing an important role in guaranteeing the transition process runs smoothly.”
Under the restructuring of the company, Nigel Parsons will take the title of Chief commercial officer from 1 April.
“This is a new role at Asahi Beverages, where the Chief Commercial Officer has responsibility for the commercial and sales functions of the group in Australia and New Zealand, which covers alcohol and non-alcohol,” the company added.
The return against Great Northern is supposed to have asahi sales managers blinded.
Beer drinkers went wild when Great Northern Backed National Parks is upstairs
The move to the back -national parks raged nature lovers because national parks are more restrictive than state parks and make it more difficult to camp and bring a family dog.
Christopher Baker from the All Terrain Action Group said that more national parks and fewer state forests were a bad idea.
“Staatsbossen offer unique preservation for natural heritage and recreational needs of the community,” he said.
“The conversion of state forests to national parks will undermine these tailor -made efforts and run out the local identity and connection with the country.”
Four-wheel drive Facebook Group 4WD TV led the opposition with an online social media campaign burning the beer 'Wakker' for supporting national parks.
“In an absolutely shameful movement, Great Northern Brewing woke up with a campaign to help us locked up from forests,” wrote it.
Leonie Blackwell, who runs the Facebook page 'Victorians against the Great Forest National Park', said Daily Mail Australia that Great Northern would regret.
“It is really disappointing that such large companies blindly support in supporting problems without the full context of the impact they will have to understand,” she said.
Asahi has been beaten for supporting national parks on the back of Great Northern
Angry drinkers quickly bomb social media with images of dumping cans of Great Northern.
Billy Menhennet said that he would not drink again northern again and proceeded to crush the cans of the beer with his foot.
'What the bloody hell is great northern thinking, so the idea of ​​locking the bush. It will only cause more fuel for larger fires, “he said.
Professor Gary Mortimer, an expert of consumer behavior at Queensland University of Technology, said it was “a case of damn if you do, or damned if you don't.
“When a company makes a decision to support a cause, there will always be an alternative group that does not support the cause and feels that the money can be allocated elsewhere,” he said Daily Mail Australia.
“That's what happened here.”
Prof Mortimer said that promotions for Great Northern 'usually guys, four -wheel drives, beaches, camping, being national parks'.
'But you can't run four -wheel drives through them, you can't bring dogs in it and camping is more challenging.
“So in essence, their target group, who loves four -wheel drives and dogs, likes to camp and fish, resistant to collecting money for a national park, which is not fundamentally something that they would generally use.”
The large Northern Blunder only comes a few months after Asahi gave drinkers with his new branding, which the Japanese brewer places about the Carlton & United Breweries logo.
