Nicolas Feuillatte hails record profits

Centre Vinicole – Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte has reported record net operating profits of €17.8 million for 2013, an increase of 13.5%.

Total sales for the co-operative reached €209.5m, a 9% uplift on 2012. The news comes just over a month after the group revealed record sales for its flagship Champagne brand Nicholas Feuillatte, which shipped 9.9m bottles last year, almost 8% more than in 2012.

The results contrast with two consecutive years of decline for the total Champagne category, with the CIVC reporting a 5m bottle slide in global shipments during 2013, following an earlier 14.2m decrease in 2012. Meanwhile the growth of Prosecco has now seen this Italian sparkling wine edge ahead of Champagne in volume terms.

Setting these latest results within the context of the company’s historic growth and ongoing commercial expansion, CV-CNF managing director Dominique Pierre told shareholders: “There is no doubt that this has only been possible through a quality grape supply and the confidence and loyalty of our members, notwithstanding our ability to anticipate the challenges of the future.”

CV-CNF president Veronique Blin paid tribute to the support of its growers, “who have now become true partners”. Looking to the future, she confirmed: “The board of directors, along with the management committee, is determined to help perpetuate this history in a constructive and deliberated manner, and to consider any development strategy that will advance us even further, to make us even more robust.”

A key part of this activity in 2014 will be the construction of a new head office for the company. Due to begin in the second half of this year, the project will replace the original CV-CNF offices, which were built during the 1970s.