Not so long ago, cider had a pretty unsavoury public image - associated in the public mind with underage teenagers skulling flagons of the stuff.

But cider over the past 10 years has enjoyed an extraordinary renaissance and is now seen as very much an up-market, yuppie drink.

The "flagon" image has been well and truly put to bed.

Much of the credit for the dramatic repositioning of cider as an upmarket adult drink has to go to John Keogh, who has been marketing manager and later marketing director of C&C's Bulmers brand for the past nine years and the man responsible for making Bulmers a major challenger to the big brands.

Now Keogh has got his reward with a promotion to managing director of Tayto, which C&C bought for €86 million (£67.7 million) a couple of years ago.

Tayto is a brand with an extraordinary level of public recognition, but since C&C bought the company it has had to cope with the arrival of high-profile and cleverly promoted imports such as British brand leader Walkers.

Slick advertising using the likes of Roy Keane has helped Walkers gain a foothold in the Irish market.

When he was running Bulmers, John Keogh was instrumental in devising the marketing strategy that allowed Bulmers fight off British imports such as Strongbow and Scrumpy Jack.

Tony O'Brien and Maurice Pratt will no doubt be hoping that John Keogh will do for Tayto in the years ahead what he did for Bulmers in the past decade.