Diageo and its Corporate Citizenship Programme

Diageo is the world’s leading premium alcoholic beverage company. Its portfolio of high profile brands includes Smirnoff, Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Bells, Baileys, J&B, Captain Morgan, Cuerva and Tanqueray. Whilst these renowned brands are themselves long-established, Diageo is a relatively new creation. In 1997 the food and drinks business Grand Metropolitan, which included Burger King, Pillsbury, Baileys and Smirnoff amongst its assets, merged with the brewer Guinness. The new corporation was named Diageo, derived from the Latin for ‘day’ (dia) and the Greek for ‘earth’ (geo) (NYSE Magazine, 2004).