Champagne Bollinger looks for new leader

Bollinger is looking to recruit a new person to head up the Champagne house following the promotion of current president, Jérôme Philipon, to the position of COO at Société Jacques Bollinger (SJB).

The move will see Philipon relocate to Paris at the end of this year as he takes on the more senior position at the holding company for Bollinger, which is also the owner of Champagne Ayala, Burgundy’s Chanson, the Loire Valley’s Langlois-Château, and Cognac’s Delamain.

The promotion will mean that Philipon will become the first person outside the Bollinger family to take such a senior position, having also been the only non-family figure in the Champagne house’s history to preside over Bollinger when he was brought in to manage the brand in 2008 from Coca-Cola Enterprises.

Philipon will work in the SJB Paris office under Bollinger family member Étienne Bizot, who, aged 54, has worked for the group for 26 years and been managing director at SJB since 2011, but from 1 January took on the position of chairman of SJB.

The changes follow the decision by Jean-Marc Courau, who is aged 67 and also a member of the Bollinger family, to stand down as chairman of SJB.

Speaking to the drinks business in Champagne last week, Philipon said that the holding company for Bollinger has always been run by a family member, but Courau and the Bollinger family shareholders had decided to hand over the management of SJB to both Étienne and Philipon as the group wanted to expand.

Jérôme Philipon will move to Paris at the end of this year to take up the position of COO at Société Jacques Bollinger (SJB)

“I will look after the internal development of all the Bollinger companies, while Étienne will be in charge of the external development of the group, as well as the relationship with its shareholders,” he explained.

Consequently, he said that the group was now looking for someone to replace Philipon’s current role as president of Champagne Bollinger.

“We have allocated 2017 to find someone to replace me at Bollinger, and it will be a long recruitment process: I will be based in Champagne until the harvest, and then I will join the office in Paris,” he told db.

He also said that the 100% family-owned company would not be promoting a new head for Champagne Bollinger from within. “We will look outside [the Champagne house], and we are not in a rush [to find a new president],” he stated.

“Jean-Marc is now 67 years-old, and he has been talking about handing over his job for some time,” added Philipon, stressing that this was not a sudden decision.

Finally, he said that he, his wife and his three children would all move from Reims – where they have been based for the past 10 years – to Paris, where the SJB office is situated.

“The family prefers that I stay close to Étienne, and that means working in the same office as him in Paris, so I will move to Paris,” he said, before stating, “But change is good.”