Nespresso Oceania general manager Renaud Tinel is trading North Sydney for Singapore, having been appointed the new regional manager for China, South Korea and South East Asia. Tinel will take up his post on 1 October 2014. The new general manager of the local office will be current GM of Nespresso Japan, Loïc Réthoré.
The release for this management change says Réthoré joins the Oceania team, “during a period of sustained growth that has seen Nespresso consolidate its reputation as the pioneer of the high-quality premium portioned coffee market”. It has also been a time of flux for the Nespresso business, which has seen its near monopoly position in the capsule coffee market challenged by the newfound popularity of challenger system sourced and heavily promoted by supermarket chains, including Woolworths and Aldi.
Throughout this time, however, Nespresso has remained committed to its club-based luxury lifestyle philosophy, continuously releasing new flavours of coffee (which it calls ‘Grands Cru’), opening new showrooms (which it calls ‘Boutiques’ or ‘Embassies’ and hosting lavish A-List events to kick-start interest in its new machines.
“Much of Nespresso’s success can be attributed to the depth of our customer relationships and a shared passion for coffee in every area of our business,” said Renaud Tinel. “Our commitment to deliver the very best coffee experience to our customers is as strong today as it ever has been.”
“Loïc has a deep understanding of the Nespresso business and with a strong management team already in place, I know our Australian operations will continue to flourish under his leadership. I would like to wish Loïc the very best success in his new role.”
In addition to overseeing this self-described period of sustained growth, Tinel and his team also successfully navigated the tremorous job of bringing Breville into the fold, alongside longtime machine partner De’Longhi. It is Nespresso’s global policy to have multiple machine partners — other markets have more than two — so it was unusual for the Swiss company to let De’Longhi have exclusive distribution.
Sources with intimate knowledge of these partnerships report that since joining the Nespresso family in mid-2013, Breville has experienced strong retail support and consumer acceptance. One source said that, not taking De’Longhi’s exclusive Latissima range into account, Breville is now within 5 per centage points of De’Longhi in terms of Nespresso machine sales.
Tinel’s ability to keep a fragile peace in what among the hectic competition is a credit to his management skills. In his role overseeing South East Asia, Tinel will again be working closely with George Garrop, the former commercial manager at Nespresso Oceania, who currently works in the South Korean office.
This author is on Twitter: @Patrickavenell