Bacardi Creates Marketing “Centers of Excellence”

15 Jun 2015---Bacardi Limited, the largest privately held spirits company in the world, announced plans to take a major step forward in bringing the company’s brand strategies closer to its markets and making them even more relevant to its consumers.

The company plans to establish Centers of Excellence (“CoEs”) in Europe and North America each headed by a Chief Marketing Officer who will report to Bacardi Limited Chief Executive Officer Mike Dolan on the company’s global brands and to those Regional Presidents on regional and local brands, and in Region marketing executions. Those CoEs will create assets and partner with a more agile Corporate Creative Excellence team, the company’s external agencies, Hubs and Markets in ensuring those assets are executed in locally relevant ways. The company will continue to review plans with teams and will finalize details in the coming weeks.

“Several months ago we consolidated our creative and media activity with BBDO and OMD. In addition, we are in the process of doing the same thing with our below the line spend. With these changes, we will be able to adapt our focus to our brands, not categories, and position ourselves to fully leverage the benefits of having world class global agency and media partners,” said CEO Mike Dolan.

The Company’s new Centers of Excellence will be headed by:

Mauricio Vergara, CMO North America and global lead for BACARDÍ® and GREY GOOSE®, based in Hamilton, Bermuda. Mauricio will report to Dolan on global brand decisions and to North America Regional President Pete Carr on regional issues. Since joining Bacardi in 2013, Mauricio has held regional and global marketing and sales leadership roles, driving integration from brand strategy to commercial execution. Mauricio has held a variety of marketing roles at Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, SAB Miller and Brown-Forman. At Brown-Forman, he served as Global Vodka Managing Director where he built a global portfolio of vodka brands including the positioning of Finlandia into a top 10 global premium brand and leading the overall category into volume growth. This experience will be invaluable in leading our GREY GOOSE brand and, as former Global Category VP for Rums, he already has experience in leading our namesake BACARDÍ.

Shane Hoyne, CMO Europe and global lead for MARTINI®, DEWAR’S®, WILLIAM LAWSON’S® and BOMBAY®, based in London, United Kingdom. Shane will report to Mike Dolan on global brand decisions and to Europe Regional President Paolo Perego on regional issues. Shane joins Bacardi from William Grant & Sons where he served as Global Brand Director for Grants Whiskey, Drambuie and Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey. Prior to joining William Grant & Sons in 2011, Shane spent 11 years at Heineken in a number of senior roles around the world, including Senior Brand Director for Heineken USA, International Communication Manager responsible for global advertising initiatives, and Senior Brand Manager for Heineken in Ireland. Shane will join the Company later this year.

The company’s Ready-To-Drink (RTD) and Tequila brands continue being led from Shanghai and Mexico respectively and brand leaders will be named shortly.

In addition, in order to best manage the company’s global agency relationships, Zara Mirza takes up the role of Head of Creative Excellence. Zara will be responsible for the central creation and delivery of integrated communications ideas/platforms across the company’s core brands and, ensuring their adaption in all key markets – rooting them in popular culture, keeping them highly relevant to their audiences and unlocking growth for the business. Zara will be based in London and will report directly to Mike Dolan. Since joining the Company last year, she served as Global Communications Director for BACARDl rum where she has been developing the next iteration of BACARDÍ “Untameable Since 1862.” Zara brings more than 15 years of experience with global brands across premium spirits, luxury goods and fast-moving consumer goods categories. She brings a great understanding of how to best leverage a global agency relationship having served as a Partner and Strategic Business Lead at Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) working on accounts such as Google, The Guardian, Johnnie Walker, ITV and Lynx. While on the agency side, she contributed to the development of brand ideas and integrated communications campaigns.

As a result of these changes, Global Chief Marketing Officer Dima Ivanov has decided to leave the company. He will work closely with Mike Dolan to ensure a smooth transition as the company implements this new way of doing business. We thank Dima for stepping in over the past months to help transition our global marketing efforts. As VP – Global Category of Rums for more than two years, he led the marketing vision and premium positioning of the rum portfolio and the development of BACARDÍ “Untameable Since 1862.”

“It has become increasingly clear that we have to change in order to win,” Dolan said. “And believe me we are in this to win. We have world-class brands and agency partners. Now it’s about changing how we organize to give our people, our partners and our brands a real shot at success. Our goal is to be the envy of our industry – to be the Company that attracts and retains the best of the best. The ultimate test of that is selling more cases, growing share and driving the bottom line so we can re-invest more in our iconic brands and industry leading innovation.”  

About Bacardi Limited

Bacardi Limited, the largest privately held spirits company in the world, produces and markets internationally recognized spirits and wines. The Bacardi brand portfolio contains more than 200 brands and labels, including BACARDÍ® rum, GREY GOOSE® vodka, DEWAR’S® Blended Scotch whisky, BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® gin, MARTINI® vermouth and sparkling wines, CAZADORES® 100% blue agave tequila, and other leading and emerging brands including WILLIAM LAWSON’S® Blended Scotch whisky, ERISTOFF® vodka and ST-GERMAIN® elderflower liqueur.

Founded 153 years ago in Santiago de Cuba on February 4, 1862, family-owned Bacardi manufactures its brands at 29 facilities and sells in more than 160 countries. Bacardi Limited refers to the Bacardi group of companies, including Bacardi International Limited.www.BacardiLimited.com