Insight: Shane O’Hart Managing Director Campari Australia

In his first ever media interview, Campari Australia’s new managing director Shane O’Hart spoke to drinks trade about moving into the role, the future direction of Campari Australia and how the invigoration of quality, and attitudes towards drinking less but drinking better are re-shaping Australia’s drinking culture today.

drinks trade: Before moving into the role of managing director with Campari Australia, what was your industry experience?

Shane O’Hart: I have a lot of history in retail, in particular with the Coles Group – my most recent experience with them was as part of the Coles Liquor Group.

Back when we first started Campari in April 2010, I joined as the state manager of WA, SA and NT, so it felt great to be back in the industry and to be part of a start-up company, which was really exciting at the time.

After about 12 months with the appointment of a new managing director I was asked to become the sales director of Australia - I was more than happy to take that role on. I moved from WA over to Sydney and just recently just recently after two and a half years in that role, I was given the opportunity to step up to the managing director’s position which I am now in.

DT: It all seems like a very fast pace – has it been a quick progression cycle for yourself?

SO: Campari is very prepared to promote and move their people around internally and that’s something that we will continue to do. We see a lot of opportunity for our people going forward and that’s a practice that we will continue to have in place and strongly maintain.

DT: Do you have any set goals or ideas you would like to see achieved while you are in the role?

SO: We have created a base for ourselves by building lifestyle brands and using people with passion and that’s the theme we’ll continue. One of the challenges we are facing is to continue to build our on-premise capability.

In the last twelve months we have put a fantastic bunch of people into brand ambassador roles across the country. That is something we’ll definitely seek to dial up which will help with our brands and our on-premise presence, and that’s very exciting for us going forward.

Another key challenge would be to come to grips understanding the whole digital, social media space.

A lot of the suppliers and retailers are working through how we get to market, how we talk to consumers, how we draw the consumers into our brand in what is a relatively new space.

Probably a third key challenge for me is to continue putting passion into our people.

DT: Tell me what is happening with Campari’s brand portfolio in Australia at the moment.

SO: Our focus is really on building premier brands and capitalising on the consumer shift to perhaps drinking a little bit less but more quality.

DT: Why do you think people’s tastes are shifting towards more premium products and what will Campari do to keep moving consumers in this direction?

SO: Consumers are changing their lifestyle habits and we have to focus more on building our brands around particular occasions.

We have to be more focused on how do we bring occasions to life in the market, with which people can engage, socialise and enjoy our products socially; this would be one of the key pillars for us.

Also, throughout our brand ambassador team we really need to make sure that consumers find ways to drink our brands, not just in a responsible way but a way that complements their lifestyle. A good example at the moment would be the trend of mixing with fresh apple juice - how do we introduce new ways of consumption that the consumers enjoy drinking our brands in the marketplace?

DT: Have you been working a lot with bartenders in
cocktail creation?

SO: We do a lot of work and have a fantastic team across the country, working not just with the cocktails bars but also with the hotels and sort of the more traditional outlets as well.

Our approach is to simplify the experience, not complicate it –  just to show bars how to make very easy, simple-mixed drinks, they don’t have to build fancy cocktails, although they are part of the repertoire.

What we have found to really work is educating them (bartenders); not just how to pour but how to ensure it is a quality serve with the consumer; how to manage the margin in the process, and how to reduce waste.

We are looking at it in a more holistic sense and asking how we can actually add value to that venue.

DT: How have you seen things happening internationally reflect on the Australian marketplace?

SO: There are a number of things that we are seeing - in particular trying to borrow from the aperitivo occasion that you see through Europe. We have a fantastic portfolio, which we can bring that to life with Aperol, Campari and Cinzano.

The second would be that trend to premiumisation, people across the globe are definitely drinking more quality. And probably a little bit more closer to home from a portfolio view, bourbon is really seeing a resurgence in the US and there are some really exciting developments from a flavour point of view, spice, we are seeing moonshine, and we are actually anticipating that trend to shift to Australia and in the future and that’s something that I think would be really exciting for this country, to really re-invigorate a category that’s a little bit old and a little bit stale you would say in the dark spirits segment.