Gaunt to lead Mint into Singapore expansion - Oct 00

By Stephanie Roberts SINGAPORE Australia-based sales incentive and customer relationship marketing agency The Mint Organisation is to expand into Singapore. Mr Nigel Gaunt, who resigned as managing director of customer relationship marketing and global sales Asia Pacific for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, will head the operation as joint managing director of the company. The offices are to be fully operational by the end of this year, adding to existing branches in Sydney and Melbourne. "Our core client base will be multinational companies that use sales incentive programmes, particularly in the automotive, insurance and IT hardware sectors," Mr Gaunt said. The Mint Organisation, which was founded in December 1999 and currently has a staff of six, will continue targeting the Australian as well as the Singaporean markets. "The Australian incentive market is mature and the economy strong," Mr Gaunt added. "The nature of this industry means that business is not signed up over night. It takes a while to come to fruition. Therefore the company has an aggressive marketing growth plan for 2001." Mr Gaunt comes to the position at The Mint Organisation with a wealth of experience in the sales incentive industry. Before joining Starwood, he founded The Forum Organisation, which grew into the largest incentive company in Australia, before selling it to Carlson Marketing Group in 1997. Mr Gaunt will not be replaced at Starwood. "I left the company at a time when the sales and marketing department was being restructured," he said. "It will now regionalise my previous position into three different roles."