SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Foster's Group Ltd. has appointed Ian Johnston to head the company after serving as acting CEO for about three months, the brewer and winemaker said Friday.
The appointment comes at a turbulent time for Foster's which last month reported an 88 percent decline in annual profit and is conducting a strategic review of its troubled wine operations.
"Ian has had an opportunity to get across the business during his time as acting CEO and will hit the ground running," the Melbourne-based company's chairman David Crawford said in a statement Friday.
Johnston had been a non-executive director of Foster's since September 2007 until he took the helm in July following the departure of Trevor O'Hoy.
O'Hoy, who was appointed chief executive in 2004, resigned in June. Foster's then announced it would review its underperforming wine assets.
That review was expected to be completed by the end of the calendar year, the company said last month.
