Gold Magazine April - May 2013, Issue 25 | Page 42

PROFILE

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In
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Middle East.”
seems to go o
Although he had alwas obliged to go back to South Africa
until 2004 when the family took a final
decision to sell up and return to Cyprus.
Stavrinou began his first ‘proper’ job with
Hermes Airports (as Commercial Manager
for Paphos) before his involvement with
SHARK and its makers Osotspa came
about in a typically Cypriot way when
someone working for the company had
become acquainted with a member of the
Cyprus Rugby Federation of which Johny
Stavrinou is proud to be the Honorary
President (“Breaking the world record for
consecutive victories is great. I remember
how, in 2004, it was impossible to find a
rugby ball here. And now, look at where
we are!”). Stavrinou’s name came up as a
potential candidate to head a small office
in Cyprus and manage the local market.
Following a “challenging and testing selection process, including a 5-hour interview
in Zagreb”, the original proposal was
expanded and Stavrinou suddenly found
himself in charge of 62 markets.
The reasons why Osotspa had chosen
Cyprus as its regional office reflect the successful marketing that the island has been
carrying out for many years:
“Cyprus has a great reputation for its
favourable tax regime but it’s much more
than that,” says Stavrinou. “The services
you get in Cyprus are top quality and the
legal and financial people who advise you
or manage your company for you are of
the highest professional standards. They
care about you. The reputation of Cyprus
extends beyond tax issues. It is known as
a place where, if you put your company
here and entrust Cypriot companies to
advise you on financial and legal matters,
it’s guaranteed that you will be looked after
as if the company is their own. I have seen
for myself how local service providers are
always willing to go the extra mile, not
to impress you but because they want to.
So Cyprus is a strategic location, it has an
attractive tax regime, it provides quality
service that you will rarely find in neighbouring countries… These alone make it

ways been in touch with his Cypriot roots,
when he finally started working on the
island, Johny Stavrinou came up against
substantial cultural differences with what
he had come to know in South Africa.
“At the end of the day, the result of
a business transaction in South Africa
or Cyprus is exactly the same but the
actual process is quite different,” he says.
“When I first came to Cyprus, the laidback attitude did bug me, I must admit!
Negotiations were very concise, precise
and professional but I often wished that
more decisions could be made at the table
instead of after lunch, dinner and 40 cups
of coffee! However, since those early days I
have come to view this way as a very good
Mediterranean strategy which allows you
to reflect on what has happened and to
put things into perspective, so that you can
then move on. Now I quite like that approach as long as it’s not too laid-back.”
It was obviously a good move for Osotspa to open an office in Cyprus but are
there things that could be done to make
things even better and more attractive to
business? The latest situation notwithstanding, Stavrinou is more than happy
with the island’s services sector. “I think
that we just need to maintain what we
already have and build on that. We have
quality, professional services, setup services
that are faster than anywhere else I know
of, and whether you’re dealing with the
port authorities, customs officials
or ministries, in my experience when it
comes down to the benefit of the country,
bureaucracy seems
to go out of the window.”
How does Johny Stavrinou go about
dealing with the 62 markets on the three
continents that fall
under his supervision? “It’s simple. I
listen,” he tells me.
“The most important thing in my
opinion is to listen
to what each of

42 Gold the international investment, finance & professional services magazine of cyprus

those 62 markets is telling me. I need to
know what they want from me. In each of
those markets, SHARK is not what I tell
them it is but what they tell me it is. We
treat each market separately.”
Stavrinou is at his most animated when
talking about SHARK and his eyes light
up when I ask him how the drink is promoted:
“SHARK is a cool, young, fresh, party,
have-a good-time lifestyle energy drink
associated with liberalism, free expression,
fun times, fashion, and a non-discriminatory, be-what-you-want philosophy! And
it’s great!” he adds, and this is not just sales
talk. He means it. “We very rarely communicate the energy drink part of it,” he
goes on. “It’s the lifestyle that is promoted
much more. In all our regions the basic
communication for SHARK is exactly the
same but how we expedite it is quite different. For example, Kenya, Tanzania and
Uganda are markets that are geographically
quite close to one another but the marketing in each one is quite different from that
in the others. So if we have a TV advert,
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