P. M. BRIEFING : Perrier Founder Leven Resigns, Months After Benzene Tainting
The founder and chairman of French mineral-water bottler Source Perrier quit today, months after benzene contamination forced the company to pull all of its product from store shelves around the world and temporarily halt sales.
The company also said it would set aside another $71 million in 1990 to cover the costs of the recall. It had already made a provision of $78 million in its 1989 accounts.
Gustave Leven, 76, who set up the sparkling-water business in the south of France and turned Perrier into a world-famous brand, told an annual shareholders meeting that he was leaving the company after 42 years at the helm.
“The time has come to think about my successor, given my age and the new distribution of shareholdings,” he told the meeting.
Jacques Vincent, Perrier’s 67-year-old vice chairman and chairman of Exor, a holding company that has raised its stake in Perrier to 31.8% over the last three years, was named as Leven’s successor.
Despite an expensive advertising campaign for the relaunch of the water, Perrier sales are still only about 60% of what they were before the benzene scare, Leven said.
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