Champion Breweries Plc has appointed Malolan Sampath as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 September 2026, following the resignation of Dr Inalegwu Adoga. The board disclosed the transition in a regulatory notice to the Nigerian Exchange Limited, signed by Chairman Imo-Abasi Jacob.
Rasheed Adebiyi, the company’s Executive Director of Finance, takes over as Acting Managing Director until Sampath assumes the role. The board framed the interim appointment as a continuity measure while making clear that Sampath represents the company’s strategic direction.
Sampath arrives with over 26 years of cross-border beverage and FMCG experience, most recently as Managing Director of the NPK Joint Venture and Chief Marketing Officer at Indorama Eleme Fertilizers in Nigeria. His beverage track record is anchored by a stint as Managing Director at Unique Beverages in Angola, where he ran a $250 million business and launched the YOLO ready-to-drink brand, and as Sales and Marketing Director for a PepsiCo bottling franchise.
The appointment lands in a complicated financial moment. Champion Breweries closed FY2025 with a profit after tax of N1.79 billion, up 119% year on year, on revenue of N29.80 billion. But Q1 2026 told a different story: pre-tax profit fell to N839.2 million from N1.7 billion in the same period a year earlier, even as brewed product revenue surged to N14.3 billion from N8.4 billion. Margin compression at strong volume is not a comfortable position to hand to an incoming chief executive.
Drinkabl.media’s earlier coverage of Nigerian Breweries’ HR appointment and Proximo Spirits’ commercial expansion both reflect how international hiring is accelerating across Nigeria’s drinks sector, with boards reaching outside the domestic talent pool for executives who have managed high-revenue businesses in frontier markets.
Sampath’s mandate at Champion will likely centre on protecting margin while the volume story develops. His Angola experience managing a $250 million distribution operation across a fragmented retail environment is the most directly relevant credential the board is betting on.
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