Cooper looks to fire up Imperial's growth

By David Jones

LONDON (Reuters) - Alison Cooper is set to become the second youngest female chief executive of a FTSE 100 company as she looks to put sales growth at the top of her agenda for the world's No 4 cigarette group Imperial Tobacco Plc (IMT.L)

Cooper, 43, was widely tipped to take over the top job at the maker of Lambert & Butler and Gauloises cigarettes next year after shadowing current CEO Gareth Davis for eight months.

Davis is set to retire next May, the day before his 60th birthday.

"Alison has worked closely on all the big deals with Gareth so the transition at the top of Imperial would appear to be very smooth," said one tobacco industry analyst.

When she takes over, Cooper will join four other female CEOs of Britain's top 100 companies, and become the second woman to run a big tobacco company following Susan Ivey at United States-based Reynolds American Inc (RAI.N).

In her ten years at Imperial, Cooper has worked closely on the two big acquisitions that transformed Imperial into a world tobacco player - Reemtsma and Altadis -- but as big tobacco deals start to dry up her emphasis will be on sales growth.

"Imperial's highlights have been on acquisitions and cost control, now we will look for growth with our expanded business in different geographies," Cooper said on a conference call.

She is set the join Angela Ahrendts at luxury goods group Burberry Group Plc (BRBY.L), Cynthia Carroll at mining group Anglo American Plc (AAL.L), Marjorie Scardino at publishing group Pearson Plc (PSON.L) and Katherine Garrett-Cox, aged 41, at investment company Alliance Trust (ATST.L) as female CEOs of FTSE 100 groups.

Davis has led Imperial since its demerger from the sprawling Hanson empire in 1996 where he embarked on a series of acquisitions to put the cigarette maker on a faster growth path than its arch British rival Gallaher.

Accountant-trained Cooper was appointed No 2 to Davis in March in a new role as chief operating officer, and with Davis long expected to retire around his 60th birthday it seemed only a matter of time before she got promoted.

Davis had dropped heavy hints about his hopes that his successor would come from within the Bristol-based cigarette maker because of the challenges and stoicism needed in a industry under attack from anti-health groups and governments.

"I am a massive advocate of internal succession," Davis said in May soon after Cooper's appointment as his number two.

Cooper has been at the heart of expansion of Imperial Tobacco buying Germany's Reemtsma in 2002 and Franco-Spanish Altadis in 2008 which transformed Imperial into the world's number four cigarette company from a largely domestic player.

Cooper joined the maker of Embassy and Richmond cigarettes in 1999 from accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers after having worked with Davis and his team for a number of years. She became group financial controller in 2001, before becoming director of finance and planning in 2003.

Cooper, married with two daughters, became sales and marketing regional director for Imperial's Western Europe region in 2005 and, two years later, joined the four-strong Imperial executive board in a new role as corporate development director.