The Category No Longer Does the Work for You: A Conversation with Julia Duckworth, Senior Innovation R&D Leader, Diageo

Julia Duckworth spends her days at the intersection of science and commercial reality. As a Senior Innovation R&D Leader at Diageo, working across North America with a focus on tequila, non-alcoholic, and ready-to-drink categories, her job is not to have ideas. It is to turn ideas into products that are commercially viable at scale, in categories that are moving faster than most companies can respond to.

In the same period that Diageo’s tequila brands have been declining sharply, the company’s non-alcoholic portfolio grew organic net sales approximately 14% in its first half of fiscal 2026. Duckworth works across both. The contrast between those two trajectories is not accidental, and understanding it starts with how the non-alcoholic category has changed.

From Side Project to Structural Shift