Suntory Holdings announced that Nobuhiro Torii, the company's executive vice president, will be promoted to president. Meanwhile, the current president, Takeshi Niinami, will transition to chairman, retaining the authority to represent the company.
The appointments were decided in an extraordinary board meeting held the same day. Torii, 58, will take the post after a shareholders meeting on March 25 next year.
He will be the first president from the firm's founding family since Nobutada Saji, 79, who served in the post from 2001 to 2014 and is now chairman of Suntory Holdings. This is the first change in its presidency in 10 and a half years. Saji will remain in his position and also serve as chairman of the board of directors.
Torii will lead management while serving as president of the group's Suntory Spirits. Niinami will support management mainly in overseas business.
"I want to lead (the group) strongly with Niinami," Torii said at a news conference. "We aim to make our domestic alcoholic beverage business stronger and our profitability more dominant to better compete with major global players".
Torii is a great-grandson of Shinjiro Torii, who founded Torii Shoten, the predecessor of Suntory, in 1899. After four people from the founding family successively served as president until Saji, Niinami, 65, became the first president from outside the family in 2014.
Nobuhiro Torii, originally from Osaka Prefecture, began his career at the Industrial Bank of Japan (now Mizuho Bank) in 1991 after studying at Keio University and Brandeis University in the United States. He joined Suntory, now Suntory Holdings, in 1997 and held various positions, including president of Suntory Beverage & Food. In March 2016, he was appointed executive vice president of the holding company.