Diageo GB is on the hunt for a new marketing director after promoting Philip Almond to a global role.

Almond will become the global brand director for Baileys, one of Diageo's leading spirits brands, which ships more than 95 million bottles worldwide each year. The role begins from 15 September, and comes with a seat on Diageo's overall marketing leadership team.

Almond has led Diageo GB's marketing efforts for three years and has worked for the company for 15 years. He has been a key driver of several of Diageo's key initiatives in Britain, including the recent Raise Your Spirits campaign to revitalise the category, and the Campaign for Smarter Drinking, which forms part of the industry's responsible drinking agenda.

Almond's departure leaves a crucial Diageo marketing role unfilled, as news emerged this week that Diageo has stepped up its efforts to protect its brands, suing Sainsbury's over Pitchers, an own-label line Diageo claims is an imitation of Pimm's.

The company said it would unveil a successor to Almond in "a future announcement", but refused to disclose a timescale.

Almond's predecessor as Baileys brand director, Sharon Keith, is leaving the company to return to her native South Africa.

Meanwhile, Diageo's clash with the Scottish government and unions rumbled on this week as workers at the Port Dundas facility in Glasgow stepped up their efforts to resist closure of the site.

To date, public attention has focused on the Johnnie Walker bottling plant in Kilmarnock, where 700 jobs are at risk. But the Port Dundas cooperage and distillery in Glasgow is also set to close, leading to an additional 200 job losses.

Workers this week lobbied Glasgow City Council to push to save their jobs.

"Diageo's proposed betrayal of Scotland's workers will hit Glasgow too," said Unite regional officer Billy Parker. "With 200 jobs hanging in the balance, we are here today to ask Glasgow council to lend its every support to the fight to keep these men and women in work."