Farr pledges Argentinian UK office before 2007'

Published: 23 July, 2008

The new director of Wines of Argentina, former perfume marketer Fernando Farr, has said that the UK will probably get a dedicated Wines of Argentina office before 2007'.

Farr - who previously worked as head of marketing for L'Oreal's luxury fragrances in Canada and Latin America - told Harpers: 'We are currently studying this, but the budget has not yet been confirmed and we will not establish an office unless we can be sure that we can keep it open. It is definitely in our programme, however, and we are hopeful we will have one up and running before 2007.'

Farr, who made his first trip to the UK in his new job for the Wines of Argentina tasting, stressed the importance of working closely with the UK importers committee: 'We have been talking very closely with them and we want to listen and find out how they see the market since they are the ones who really can give us a sense of where we should go. We need to find out how to reach the consumer and recruit new drinkers and at the same time build an emotional connection with them. We also need to work on better implementation of our promotional plans with the retailers.'

Farr said that he didn't see his relative lack of wine knowledge as a problem: 'It's always good to have a different view on things. My role is to build Argentina's image, implement a marketing plan and run an aggressive campaign. I have been doing similar things in a different industry, but one that has similar attributes when it comes to positioning, labelling, implementation of promotions and the emotional connection you need to make with the consumer.'

Fernando Boxaca, export manager at Allied Domecq Argentina, who sits on the generic executive board, added: 'At first we thought we needed somebody within the industry and we conducted a large search, but in the end we decided that someone from outside would have a different interpretation of what the problems and solutions are.'

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