• Financial Times, Tuesday, February 17, 2009 11:15 AM

Foster's, the Australian drinks group, has decided to hold onto its struggling wine business after a lengthy review, but it will separate it from its core beer operations.

CEO Ian Johnston says retaining wine is not a "second best option" although he says a lot of hard work is needed to get the business to improve. He says the business has suffered from poor execution in the Americas and the abandoned "multi-beverage" model, where sales of different beverages were combined under one sales and marketing team.

"We have confessed it has underperformed our expectations," Johnson says. "But this is a good business, with global brands in Australia and North America and it is profitable and throwing off cash."

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