Leading by design

Pol Roger’s Patrice Noyelle talks openly to Chris Orr about the difficulties in modernising a long established Champagne brand, while maintaining an image of luxury

Patrice Noyelle is skilled in the art of diplomacy.  Over the last five years at the helm of Champagne Pol Roger, he’s had to tread a careful path in helping modernise the company and manage the expectations of the family that own it.  A path that has not always been easy.

"It’s always difficult talking about this," he says, resigned to the fact that whichever way he puts it, he risks offending someone.  Noyelle was headhunted from Burgundy producer Mommessin in 1997, when Christian de Billy decided to retire.

"He was 68 and had given enough of his life to the business. I think he wanted to enjoy life a bit.  The problem was, that left a vacancy of power.  They looked in the Champagne region but did not find anyone suitable.

We had just sold Mommessin to Boisset, and to be honest I was not happy with the decision, so frankly it was a glorious day for me when the call came through.  "Pol Roger were looking for someone to manage the company.

The goal given to me by Christian was to take the reins for the next 10 to 15 years, until the point when Hubert de Billy was ready to take over.  That was my brief.  The company needed some fresh air and some new thinking.

But it is difficult to talk about because the inference, immediately, is that the company was badly run.  Which is not the case at all. It simply needed some fresh air.  "They had a great product, a lovely wine, but it needed some fresh blood in the company.  I really think it was as simple as that."

And fresh blood is exactly what they got. Just last month the company revealed the last of the new packaging designs for their Vintage, Vintage Rosé and Blanc de Blancs wines – the final stage of a complete overhaul of the company’s presentation and image that was carried out by design specialists Lewis Moberly.

"Of course it was difficult," admits Noyelle when quizzed about the decision to revamp Pol Roger’s image.  "White foil has been around for a hundred years or more. It was most definitely a touchy subject. Which is why we decided to go to an outside agency – to get an independent perspective.

It wasn’t the cheapest way of doing it but it was effective. "I mean I don’t consider myself a marketing man. I mean I know what I want, I know where I want to go with Pol Roger but I am not a marketing man. I don’t have those capabilities.

And to be honest, at the time, I didn’t think there was anyone at Pol Roger who had those capabilities.  So we threw it out to tender and ended up working with Mary Lewis at Lewis Moberly, who had emerged as the most capable, and in fact sympathetic, to the whole project."  Noyelle clearly takes pride in the redesign. 

"I think it is still very much Pol Roger," he says, handling a bottle of the brut.  "I think there are some wonderful graphical elements that go back to the beginning of Pol Roger and the designers have taken them and given them a modern edge. 

The wonderful thing for us about the process was that, in truth, Lewis Moberly didn’t come up with anything new, but rather reworked the basic elements of Pol Roger’s design heritage to come up with packaging that was bolder, simpler, more striking and different – yet fundamentally still Pol Roger.

When you see the neck of the bottle on the table or sticking out of the ice bucket, you still instantly recognise it as Pol Roger and that is essential." 

The redesign is perhaps the most visible sign of the impact that Noyelle has had on Pol Roger over the last five years and is the ulmination of some tough love that he’s had to dole out over the period.

Shortly after he joined, Noyelle took the decision to inject a new impetus and face into the wine making team and hired Dominique Petit, formerly of Krug, to head up this side of the operations.  "That for me was a key decision," says Noyelle.

"Within a very short space of time, Dominique pointed out to me something that – not being an oenologist – I hadn’t realised at all.  That the production ‘tool’ behind Pol Roger needed to be adapted, changed and modernised.

From the cellars and tanks up to the disgorgement etc – all had to be updated.  That’s a process we’ve gone through bit by bit over the last five years.  "We built brand new fermentation cellars which went in to effect in 2001 and we have now a plan to build a second fermentation cellar.

With this being done all Pol Roger wines would be fermented under a proper thermo regulated system.  I mean we were doing thermo regulated fermentations but not necessarily in the most up to date and modern manner.

Now we have a thoroughly modern production tool – which is essential for taking the company forward."  All of which presumably cost an arm and a leg? "Well, these things are never cheap. But we were lucky," explains Noyelle.

"1999 was a very flamboyant financial year for Champagne and for us, which allowed the company the funds to rebuild the financial strength of Pol Roger. "I also think – and I don’t want to sound overconfident with this – but I do think my coming into the company helped with the banks.

I think they felt confident with what I had done before and consequently I had access to far lower rates.  And of course I played the banks off against each other.  You know I really loved that part of it.

So we rebuilt the financial strength of the company and the banks are happy and so are we.  Banks obviously realise that to grow a business it is important to invest, and we have invested in Pol Roger."

Part of that investment has also been in revamping and reenergising the company’s lines of distribution.  "One of our first major moves on this front was to move our distribution on the home market, France, from Amadis, to Baron Philippe de Rothschilds.

I think when it all started Amadis were good performers, but by the end, frankly it was not terribly well done.  There seemed to be no logic, no policy, the pricing was all wrong.  In a way we were lucky because they went bust, so we moved immediately to Baron Philippe.

"We now have a solid distribution in France. Baron Philippe is a well organised company that is used to selling premium products and that’s important for us. We’d lost market share in France, but we’re now finding we’re gaining ground back quite quickly.

We’ve also changed our distribution in Switzerland, Japan and Italy and all of that is helping us to gain significantly better business.  And there will be more changes in this area over the next year which I believe are crucial to us moving forward.

"And in the UK we’ve done extremely well.  Whilst we suffered a bit after the millennium, as everyone did, the past five years have seen good growth.  And I think part of that is down to our marketing strategy.

The Oxford, Cambridge and FT Business schools’ connections are very important to us. With the former we have built up a wonderful international network of well connected and influential people, who we’ve captured in their early twenties and who are now loyal to the brand.

"Likewise with the FT Business School tasting competition.  We’ve targeted alumni of the main business schools that are in London, so former students of the Harvard Business School, Insead etc, who are 35+, young, successful and influential.

The impression a lot of people had of Pol Roger was that it was something their father or grandfather drank. It was not considered by the current generation, but initiatives like these are helping to change that."

For Noyelle perhaps one of the most enlightening discoveries in his role has been the importance of marketing.  "I think I have realised," he explains rather sheepishly, "over the past five years that there is an extra dimension to Champagne.

That it is not just like producing an excellent Burgundy, but rather there is a marketing dimension. Champagne is on the edge of wine and luxury goods – it stands either side of the line.  And we need at Pol Roger to develop a strong marketing position and department.

"Frankly it took me a while to realise this.  In part because I came from Burgundy.  But also at the beginning, I think it was because I was also very much interested in the wine making process.  This was not necessarily the case at Mommessin.  But to produce a Champagne was a dream for me.

I think however, I have realised now that the marketing aspect is absolutely vital.

But then it has to be accepted by the company, by the family.  It is another new dimension, something new in their framework.  "It will take some time, of course, but it is starting.

I have planted the germ, the seed in the minds and so far I haven’t seen any resistance and we are working towards a gentle transition.  I have learnt that gentle transition is much better you know."

Tied up with Noyelles concept of turning Pol Roger into a marketing led and driven company, is the whole idea of Champagne as a luxury product.

Noyelle is proud of the fact that Pol Roger doesn’t play the discounting game, but worried over the effects other houses’ somewhat cavalier pricing arrangements may have on the category as a whole.

"I think it’s fair to ask the question of Champagne these days, are we really a luxury good? Do you discount luxury goods.  It is a philosophical question for the whole of Champagne.

It’s a rather curious attitude and I think it is a combination of the reduction of volume and market share and I believe those Champagne companies that can resist the lure of such a short term opportunity, should. And in truth it’s not just in the UK; the same thing happens around Christmas time in France too.

"This is a big challenge for Champagne.  We are on the edge.  Whether we will remain a luxury good, or fall on the other side of the thin line is in the balance I feel. And if the aim of Pol Roger is to grow a little bit bigger, it is not in the race for production.

I feel our scope for production is bigger, but not at the cost of image.  We are not interested in the race for volume."  Currently the company is producing some 1.4m bottles of Champagne each year – a figure that Noyelle is comfortable with but has plans to increase.

"I would like to bring, slowly but surely, the company up to a level of something like 1.8m bottles, because I think this is the proper size for Pol given the physical environment of the company.  It will take ten years of course, but I feel this is where we should get to.

"However, it is out of the question for the family, the shareholders and myself to grow this into an enormous company.  We want stay Pol Roger, the Pol Roger that we all love. But we can bring it to 1.8m without affecting the substance of Pol Roger, without affecting the quality.

The company is well organised for 1.8m. In 1999 when we were about 1.9m plus, I felt it did not work so well.  So I know that this objective is feasible and the figures are right. And Hubert and Dominique share this.

We are a family owned company, and we have to remain a custom-tailored prestige Champagne company.  This is what we are good at."  What comes across most clearly in conversation with Noyelle is that he is incredibly passionate about Pol Roger.

He may not be a family member, but it’s hard to see a difference in the sense of ownership that he has taken over the last five years.  For some in the company, the revamp of the packaging, the new marketing led approach will have been a very difficult and not entirely pleasant experience.

But Noyelle seems to have handled it sympathetically and, of course, diplomatically. However, when asked how he’d define his time so far at Pol Roger, he lets the diplomacy slip a little.

"How would I define it?" he muses.  "Well, when you drive up the Avenue de Champagne these days, the lights are most definitely on at Pol Roger."