It has been a busy week over at Great Marlborough Street, London W1, as several top executives at Diageo (DGE) cashed in share awards to cover tax liabilities.

Debra Crew, the firm’s newly-appointed chief executive, sold a total of $3.5 million worth of ADS (American depository shares).

At the same time, 11 members of the executive committee – Ewan Andrew, Soraya Benchikh, Alvaro Cardenas, Cristina Diezhandino, Dan Mobley, Hina Nagarajan, Dayalan Nayager, John O’Keefe, Louise Prashad, Claudia Schubert and Tom Shropshire – sold varying amounts of UK shares which like Crew’s were issued as part of the firm’s long-term incentive plan.

As a business, Diageo has a tremendous long-term record of high returns and free cash flow generation but its shares have soured of late along with other premium drinks makers amid concerns over falling US spirits sales.

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In Watford, meanwhile, JD Wetherspoon (JDW) chairman Tim Martin has been raiding his piggy-bank to top up his shareholding in the pub chain.

On 1 September, Martin purchased 968,544 shares at just over 700p apiece for an outlay of around £6.8 million taking his personal stake in the business from 23.9% to 24.65%.

In the firm’s pre-close trading update released in early July, the firm said fourth-quarter organic sales were running 11% ahead of the same period before the pandemic and 11.5% above the same period last year.

Pubs, and in particular those with a food offering, have had a good summer as the weather has improved and cost increases have been slightly below forecasts, while sporting events such as the Women’s World Cup have helped attract more customers.

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