Greg Calnon has joined Tempo from Electrolux in a new role titled head of major appliances – private label, brand licensed and brand distribution.
Calnon spent six and a half years at Electrolux, most recently as head of key accounts and was previously managing the Narta Group. Prior to this, he spent five years at LG and worked at Panasonic with Tempo employees, Nigel Dent and Matt Pearce during his time with the organisation from 2008 to 2013.
“I am excited and thankful to the Tempo group and their trust in my further development. Private label is not an area where I have a lot of exposure and for me it is an area I wanted to do, instead of going back to another tier one company,” said Calnon.
“I am looking forward to working again with Nigel who I have history with. Nigel presented a good proposition for me where I can develop and grow further. Nigel originally brought me from Panasonic Western Australia in my first key account role with Harvey Norman in Sydney a long time ago, and this new role is a chance to rekindle the relationship. I am looking forward to it – there are big things ahead for Tempo group.”
Dent said it is good to be reunited with Calnon after many years.
“Part of this is about getting the gang back together – Matt, myself and Greg, who all worked together at Panasonic,” he said.
“I am excited to have someone of Greg’s calibre on board and it shows how serious Tempo is about reaching the traditional retail market. Greg is coming on board specifically to drive MDA for Tempo looking after brand distribution, brand licence and private label and we have big plans to drive that forward.
“Complementing Greg, we have already had Nicole Rakecki join our team over the last 12 months as senior key account executive. Nicole is very experienced coming from retail and that speaks to what we are trying to do at Tempo – employ a lot of people with experience and cut through to find the gaps and become more valuable for our retail partners. Representing distributors means we can cherry pick the key opportunities as we understand our market.
“We have found that within Sharp, we had a great brand with a lot of heritage and power, but it had become a little bit invisible over time. To bring that back and build a strong foundation we specifically looked at microwaves as the key cornerstone area. Since then, we have revitalised the entire range and we have the freshest range of microwaves in the market that is delivering a lot of value for the retailer and the consumer.”
Pictured: Greg Calnon (Tempo), Matt Pearce (Tempo), Keiji Yamanaka (Sharp), Tomoki Tamura (Sharp), Nigel Dent (Tempo) & Nicole Rakecki (Tempo) on the Sharp stand at IFA 2024 in Berlin.