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.