Diageo North America Announces Pronghorn, a 10-Year Economic Impact Initiative to Drive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Spirits Industry

We have partnered with spirits industry innovators Dia Simms and Erin Harris to help participants within the Black community achieve the goal of generating $2 billion in economic value in the U.S.¹

The inclusive and diverse economic initiative will focus on cultivating the next generation of diverse founders, executive leaders and entrepreneurs in a sustainable and scalable way.

Called Pronghorn, the transformative partnership will create a dedicated standalone business with a sole focus on expanding diversity, equity, and inclusion within the beverage alcohol industry, driving meaningful and long-lasting change with impact across the total industry ecosystem.  Ms. Simms was inspired to name the partnership Pronghorn after the remarkable land animal, indigenous and unique to North America, that can maintain the fastest speeds over the longest distances on land.   

The Black community represents 12 percent of consumers across the U.S. beverage alcohol category, but is nonetheless inequitably represented within the industry from employment and ownership perspectives. We are addressing these inequities head-on by joining the initiative as a founding partner, with a significant anchor investment, in the launch of Pronghorn. In its initial phase, it will focus on addressing the lack of equitable representation among the Black community in the spirits industry by stimulating entrepreneurship, recruitment and retention. Through this partnership, Pronghorn will identify and nurture new brands and nourish emerging businesses through capital investment, thereby generating hundreds of new founders and thousands of participants, and disrupting from within an industry that creates $353 billion in economic value ². 

This latest effort aligns to our recent announcement of Society 2030: Spirit of Progress, a global 10-year action plan to help create a more inclusive and sustainable world. As part of this plan, we have committed to increase representation of global leaders from diverse backgrounds to 45 percent, achieve at least 50 percent representation of women in leadership roles, and ensure our community programs will be designed to enhance diversity and inclusion of previously excluded groups by 2030, among other goals.

In North America, we are elevating communities of color, particularly in the areas of education and hospitality.  For example, as part of our $20 million Diageo Community Fund, we funded permanent endowments at 25 Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the U.S.; we were a founding contributor of the ‘Raising the New York State Bar’ Restaurant Recovery Fund to help businesses adjust to COVID-19 requirements; and we financially supported COVID-19 recovery efforts for Chicago neighborhoods by helping to create more public spaces.

¹ Estimates are based on the economic impact of the supplier tier within the beverage alcohol industry: https://www.wswa.org/data-and-impact/economic-database

² According to the Economic Impact of American Wine & Spirits Distributors: https://www.wswa.org/data-and-impact/economic-database