Ellis will report directly to Denis O’Flynn, managing director, Pernod Ricard UK and will become a member of the Pernod Ricard UK executive committee.

A statement from the company said this promotion recognises Ellis’s "contribution to Pernod Ricard UK over the last seven years, both as sales operations & planning director and commercial strategy director for the wines & spirits portfolio and for the last four years as channel director for off-trade spirits".  

This appointment follows Simon Thomas’s decision to leave the business for personal reasons and Lee James’s transfer to premium wine brands.