Riccardo Trentini
Partner, Maestri Milano
As commercial director, over the years I sought to focus on three main factors: reasonable prices, great wines, and top-class customer care. Maestri’s aggressive price policy has been part of a greater strategy to democratize a market that in Colombia has been historically limited to the upper class. Maestri made the tough decision to lower its margins despite the tax reform in order to target a larger segment of the population. While the selection of wonderful balanced products has been a proud differentiation flagship of our brand since the company’s founding in 2015, we have worked on offering the most complete set of Italian products available in the country. Starting three years ago with four vineyards and 12 wine references, we now have nine vineyards and over 30 wine references out of the most representative of the Italian enogastronomic tradition. Maestri is proud of its sales results after 40% growth in 2017 and due to an impressive 70% improvement on 1Q2018 despite the initial 30% forecasted.
Carlo Angius
Partner, Maestri Milano
Maestri Wine Boutique (MWB) is now a reality. Strategically and financially speaking, we realized how important it is to sell directly to end-users. This was the reason why we considered setting up a wine boutique that is a store, showroom, and private dining area. Located in Quinta Camacho, MWB is already a key spot for wine lovers. It is the only Italian wine shop in the country where one can find all types of wines and liquor at import price. Our strategy is clear; we want to make great wines more accessible to old and new clients. We seek to be a major part of our clients’ lives, especially for important events such as weddings. Maestri Milano will soon count on a national coverage as a result of a network of distributors that ensures a capillary presence on the market. As a result of a two-year effort to bring together the best professionals in the country, our wines can now be found in Bogotá, Cartagena, Barranquilla, Santa Marta, Bucaramanga, MedellÃÂn, and Cali, with new cities in the works.
Danilo Marotta
Partner, Danilo Marotta
Facing peaks in demand due to the seasonality of the market together with great selling performance required special attention. This is why we developed methods to predict demand levels so that the procurement mix could match the effectively sold gamma. Such work required working closely with all areas in order to develop a top-down approach to solve the delicate supplying matter. Charting complex processes made it easier to manage operational tasks along with the Colombian legislation. All these were done while learning how to correctly evaluate the risks implicated in various steps of the administrative and logistics chain. On the back end, we have been optimizing various processes, formalizing aspects and jobs that will take us to entirely comply with the ISO normative in 2019. We are also extensively studying the financial dynamics of the market especially focusing on risk coverage to exposure in the foreign exchange market. All these changes and dedication will ensure we will be fully ready to efficiently support sales nationwide.
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