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From F1Total.com:
Minardi und Irvine: Verhandlungen werden konkreter
28. Juli 2005 - 09:15 Uhr (Autor kontaktieren)
(F1Total.com) - Am Dienstag haben sich Minardi-Teamchef Paul Stoddart und Ex-Formel-1-Pilot Eddie Irvine getroffen, um über eine Übernahme des kleinsten Rennstalls der Königsklasse zu verhandeln. Irvine hat bekanntlich vor, gemeinsam mit seinem russischen Geschäftspartner und Freund Roustam Tariko in die Formel 1 einzusteigen.
Laut dem 'Irish Independent' müsste Irvine für das Team mit Hauptquartier im italienischen Faenza geschätzte 50 Millionen Euro auf den Tisch legen.
-Irvine had a meeting with Stoddie on tuesday to talk about a sale
-Irvine plans to enter F1 together with his friend, Russian buisnesman Toutsam Tariko (never heard)
-According to Irish Independent, he has to pay 50 Mio
Comments
Roustam Tariko, the man who is tipped to be on the verge of buying the Jordan F1 team is unusual for the modern Russian rich in that his empire is not based on one of the old Soviet industries which were privatised after the break up of the old system of government. Tariko, who comes from the area which has since become Tatarstan, a small republic in the middle of the Russian Federation, has built his empire from humble beginnings, starting out working for a cooperative that provided transportation services to foreign visitors. He made his first serious money by acting as an intermediary between the Russian government hotel booking agency Intourist and an Italian travel company. This led to a deal with the chocolate company Ferrero (which owns the Ferrero Rocher, Tic Tac and Nutella brands) to import their products into the opening Russian market. This led to an approach from Martini & Rossi which was looking to expand its sales in Russia. The initial deal was for a truckload of Martini which Tariko sold to the Russian elite for $50 a bottle. It was such a success that he was signed up as Martini's exclusive Russian importer and by 1994 the company had boomed and was importing 90 different brands including Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Bacardi, Gordons, Veuve Cliquot and Krug. These were sold at premium prices to Russia's new rich. By 1998 Tariko had become the largest Martini importer in the world.
He then decided that the company could always be at the mercy of the foreign firms and decided that he would start his own brand, which would have a range of products and would have a strong Russian identity. Working with the McKinsey consulting firm, he developed the strategy by establishing Russian Standard vodka.
"If you want to sell products to Russians you have to look to the past," he says. "You need to understand who they are, what they will reject and what they will buy. The messages we have been communicating to consumers are based on Russian traditions."
The strategy was to have one of Russia's oldest distilleries produce the vodka for Russian Standard and aim for the high-end of the market, pricing it cheaper than the important brands but much more expensive than the other Russian products. This created a glitzy image and big profits as the country's new wealthy aspired to luxury brands.
The next step was to move into finance with the purchase of a bank after the 1998 financial crisis. He hired executives from other banks and moved into consumer finance, while also providing funding for major international firms in the uncertain Russian market. Russian Standard vodka has since begun to expand internationally and a move into Formula 1 would be a logical step given the brand philosophy and target markets of the company. There is no shortage of money as Tariko's empire is believed to be worth around $870m.
(copyright: Grandprix.com)
Anybody remember if it was the same as Mr. Tariko's brand????