Swire Pacific’s youthful new boss, Merlin Bingham Swire, 45-year-old great-great-great grandson of the founder John Samuel, is leading an era of change at the business empire. Swire Beverages name has been changed as it cuddles closer to Coca-Cola, transformation is the command at Cathay Pacific, HAECO has been privatised and an executive in charge of LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusiveness appointed.
Swire Beverages has been renamed Swire Coca-Cola as the company beds down new franchises in China and the USA, according to Swire News, cementing its lockstep partnership with the American bottler. Beverages is by far the largest division of Swire Pacific with sales of $41,190 million. Swire now has the right to manufacture and market 61 beverages in 11 Chinese provinces, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan and much of the western USA.
Merlin is about to mark one year as Swire Pacific chairman. The second son of patriarch Sir Adrian who died recently, Merlin was a billionaire at birth. The Swires’ wealth is estimated at $25 billion. He grew up at the family seat of Sparsholt Manor near Winchester. At Oxford University, where the Swires are major benefactors, Merlin studied the classics. He has always moved in aristocratic circles and he married well. His mother Lady Judith Compton is the daughter of the 6th Marquess of Northampton. Dad served in the Coldstream Guards and while working locally for Swire, flew for the Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force. Merlin’s elder cousin Barnaby is chairman of the Swire Group in London. His brother Samuel Compton also works for Swire locally.
Merlin’s chairmanship puts him in charge of a 93,000-employee group with a market capitalisation of $132 billion. He has been a director for 10 years and first started working for Swire in 1997. Merlin also serves on the boards of Cathay Pacific, HAECO and Swire Properties. Aside from Beverages, the Swire Pacific group includes divisions Aviation (revenue $14,892 million) Property ($14,719 million) Marine Services (3,019 million) and Trading and Industrial ($10,978 million).
In his first Chairman’s statement in the 2018 annual report, Merlin described the past year as one of “consolidation and recovery”. Cathay Pacific was half-way through a transformative period and had returned to profitability. HAECO had been privatised after Swire acquired the remaining 25 per cent of shares from public holders. Swire Properties was showing solid increases in its portfolio.
Merlin is a young man with much of the world at his fingertips. He married the Hon. Laura Carlyn Chisholm, daughter of the Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen. The couple have two children, Anna Carlyn and Jessica Judith.
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