New Philanthropic Baja Mexico Wine Venture Announced by Industry Veterans
Costa Mesa, CA – Live. Purposeful. That is the tagline for Baja United Group, the newly formed company by Jim Riley (President, Baja United Group). An industry expert with over 30 years of experience in the beverage and spirits sector (Ketel One Vodka, Azunia Tequila) will translate his background to successfully navigate the direction of this new venture. In addition to his knowledge of the beverage space, Jim shares a love of Baja Mexico and all the wonderful experiences it can provide. Aside from his recent role as Founder and CEO of Intersect Beverage/Azuñia Tequila, Riley is a professional off-road racing driver with numerous Baja 1000 races under his belt. For the last several years Riley has been involved in various charitable efforts to help support orphanages as well as other Baja residents in need of resources. It was here that Riley saw an opportunity to combine his experiences, connections and passions into one united effort. With that, the Baja United Group was enthusiastically created.
The initial strategy of the company will have a focus on importing wines from the Valle de Guadalupe region of Baja Mexico into the United States for retail and online sales. The group has developed a partnership with five top wineries from the region, which has been widely recognized as an emerging player in the wine industry and called “the next Napa” by the Los Angeles Times. Through the sales and distribution of various Valle de Guadalupe wines, Baja United Group will also promote the region through tours of the area wineries to enthusiastic members of the American wine community. Integral to this new venture is the founder of Corona de Valle wines, Hector Corona. His winery gained worldwide attention when their wine was included on the menu of the exclusive French Laundry restaurant in San Francisco.
To help with the strategic and creative approach for Baja United Group, the founder of Blue C Advertising, Eric Morley, will head up all marketing strategy and branding efforts. Eric and his team have been involved with many similar philanthropic efforts in Mexico, and both his and Blue C’s involvement with this new company was a clear choice. With the upcoming launch of this exciting new company, Baja United Group aims to expand into more areas of expertise with the goal to: Live. Purposeful.
About Jim Riley, President, Baja United Group – Jim currently drives professionally for General Tire in the NORRA Mexican 1000 race as well as the Best in the Desert race series. As the former CEO for Intersect Beverage/Azunia Tequila, Jim led all operations, distribution partnerships and marketing programs. Jim’s executive leadership also saw him as Vice President of Public Relations and Events at Ketel One Vodka, where he oversaw various communication programs and was a key visionary for the brand. Jim currently speaks at universities and trade associations and marketing round tables on the topic of marketing in a crowded marketplace, social responsibility for a purposeful business, and stepping outside of the normal for beverage company marketing efforts.