Exclusive Interview: Melanie Batchelor Takes The Helm At Campari America

Campari Group this morning announced the promotions of company veterans Ugo Fiorenzo and Melanie Batchelor, with Fiorenzo becoming managing director, business unit Americas, and Batchelor ascending to lead the U.S. business as managing director of Campari America. Under Fiorenzo’s leadership the past seven years, Campari America doubled in size and relocated from San Francisco to New York City. Now Batchelor, who previously led sales and the upscale Rare division at Campari America, will look to extend that growth. According to Impact Databank, Campari America had U.S. depletions of 6.2 million cases in total last year. SND executive editor Daniel Marsteller spoke with Batchelor in an exclusive interview coinciding with her appointment as head of the U.S. business.

SND: As a veteran of Campari, you come to your new role with ample experience within the organization and familiarity with the portfolio. How does that affect your approach as you take the helm of the U.S. business?

Batchelor: I’ve been with Campari for over a decade now, with the majority of that time in the U.S. So I know the company, the brands, and the culture extremely well. One thing I’ve learned about Campari is that nothing ever stands still. I’ve seen a massive evolution in the last decade, and our CEO (Bob Kunze-Concewitz) has been very transparent about our aspirations. If you look at the last 15 years we’ve acquired well-known brands like Grand Marnier, Appleton Estate, and Wild Turkey Bourbon. We’ve also acquired some small brands, which we really set up for exponential growth as well, with Espolon being the best example there. What’s important for Campari America is continuing to be a very agile company, ready to embrace the next change that’s going to come and also to remain a trendsetter in the industry.

SND: What’s the overall vision behind Campari’s goal of becoming the fastest-growing spirits company in the U.S.?

Batchelor: Where I think we’ve done a really great job in the last five years has really been fueling the growth of the heritage category. That’s mainly been through Aperol and Campari. Both of these brands still have a long runway and I’m going to continue to ignite that growth in the coming years. There’s also another couple of categories that I’m going to focus on a lot. Firstly, Mexican spirits, and obviously Espolon has been a massive growth driver for us, and I still see enormous opportunity there. We’ve also just launched an ultra-premium Tequila, Mayenda, one of the first brands in a long time that we’ve created ourselves. We’re making a big investment in that brand and I’m really excited about its potential.

Bourbon is another category that we’re very focused on as a company. We’ve done a huge amount to premiumize Wild Turkey. The Bourbon itself was already legendary thanks to (master distillers) Jimmy and Eddie Russell, but we’ve invested a lot in both marketing and innovation. Russell’s Reserve is another gem in our portfolio, which has been growing very nicely. We’ve also just made a recent, very large acquisition of Wilderness Trail and we’re in the process of fully integrating that brand into Campari America. Where Wild Turkey is a very traditional brand, Wilderness Trail is a very modern brand with great potential, so they complement each other in the portfolio.

SND: What other factors are key to growing the business in the coming years?

Batchelor: One of the big focus areas for us as a company has been around the capital investments we’ve made. We’ve currently got a new distillery going under construction for Wild Turkey. I was recently in Arandas (Jalisco, Mexico), and there’s been a huge expansion and investment in our Tequila operations and globally really building capacity for that as well. Based on those factors, we’ve got a lot of room to grow.

We’ll have more with new Campari America managing director Melanie Batchelor in the second part of this interview.

Tagged : Aperol, Campari, Campari America, Espolón, Mayenda, Wild Turkey

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