Why true Blue Ahmed Fahour has decided to wrestle with the Tiger in Richmond sponsorship

What would make Carlton fan Ahmed Fahour seal a deal with rival Richmond?

Latitude CEO Ahmed Fahour with Richmond FC CEO Brendan Gale at Punt Road oval. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian

Ahmed Fahour, one of Australia‘s more flamboyant chief executives and diehard Carlton fan, says he is making a decision with his head instead of his heart in signing up Latitude Financial to a sponsorship with AFL powerhouse Richmond.

After all, sponsoring Carlton’s cross-city rival is the last thing expected from Fahour, who hardly misses a Carlton game – even when they are losing, which is a fair bit lately. He also was club director for three years until 2015, and played a couple of games for the Blue’s under 19s side as a teenager.

But Fahour is one of Australia’s savviest business leaders. He had the foresight to invest $2.5bn in Australia Post’s parcel network while helming the organisation 10 years ago – a move that led to it retaining its stronghold on parcel deliveries, with a domestic market share of more than 80 per cent, fending off fierce competition from the likes of DHL, FedEx and others.

Now, he is hoping to do the same thing again at Latitude, this time ensuring the non-bank lender emerges strongly from the coronavirus-fuelled economic downtown. And retaining brand awareness via sponsorships is high on his agenda.

It’s a similar strategy which luxury Swiss watch brand Tissot has adopted in an effort to also catapult itself from the COVID-19 pandemic by ramping up its investment in marketing, sponsorships and innovation.

“I personally am a Carlton supporter,” Fahour says. “But this is not about Ahmed sponsoring Richmond, this is about Latitude sponsoring Richmond.

“Therefore we have to make a decision with what’s in the best commercial interest of Latitude, and there is no question that Richmond is currently the most successful, one of the most powerful clubs currently and has been for a number of years.

But it’s the reigning premier’s 100,000 members that Latitude is hoping to tap into, with the club using its logo on its players’ shorts this season.

“In terms of membership, reach and impact on the broader consumer market, there is no question that they are extremely successful and I am wanting our brand to reach out to as many Australians as possible through marketing. Richmond gave us an opportunity for a sponsorship that really worked well for Latitude”.

“So, you can see that I am voting with my head and not my heart. Three premierships in the past four years is undeniable – as a Carlton supporter, I’m just happy to get into the eight.”

Latitude will also have a match-day presence in Richmond’s change rooms, and will be to “connect” with the Tiger Army through new digital and content initiatives and provide exclusive offers to Richmond members.

Fahour says the sponsorship was not to boost Latitude’s appeal ahead of a potential third tilt at hitting the ASX boards. Latitude owner, New York-based private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is understood to have hired Jefferies Australia to assess options for its interest in Latitude, following a strong performance by its competitor Liberty Financial when it headed to the boards in December.

“It’s completely nothing to do with that. What my owners do with their shares is something really for them to decide. But from my point of view, the most important thing that I need to do with the management team is run the business really well and to continue to grow and improve our services to our customers.

“What I can say to you, is this sponsorship is only one announcement of a multitude of investments that we are going to roll out over the coming months. If you look during COVID when there was huge economic and health turmoil, at the same time those organisations that presented themselves with great solutions, end up doing very, very well.

“The brands that we are associated with and have done work with in our interest free product, like JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Apple and Samsung, they have done incredibly well in 2020 and we hope will continue to do well in 2021. We have set ourselves up to not be hiding and go out there and support consumers and market our services in the interest free product to the broader community.”