Veep Torii to Become Suntory Holdings President

Tokyo, Dec. 12 (Jiji Press)--Nobuhiro Torii, executive vice president of Japanese beverage giant Suntory Holdings Ltd., will be promoted to its president to succeed Takeshi Niinami, it was learned Thursday.

Niinami will assume the post of chairman with the right to represent the company, informed sources said.

Torii, 58, will be the first president from the firm's founding family since Nobutada Saji, 79, who served in the post in 2001-2014 and is now chairman of Suntory Holdings.

The top management reshuffle will be announced by Torii and Niinami at a press conference in Tokyo later in the day after being decided at an extraordinary board meeting.

Torii is great-grandson of Shinjiro Torii, who founded Torii Shoten, the predecessor of Suntory, in 1899. After four people from the founding family successively served as president, Niinami, 65, became the first president from outside the family in 2014.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]