Labruyère acquires disgraced bottler Raphaël Michel

Labruyère Développement & Industries (LDI) has acquired the bulk bottler Raphaël Michel and renamed it ‘Anagram’.

The takeover was approved by the commercial court of Montpellier on 13 August this year, with LDI taking responsibility for all of Raphaël Michel’s contracts in France and Chile with immediate effect.

The group’s complete assets, companies and domaines, have all been transferred to LDI’s control and the takeover will ensure creditors will be repaid in full.

LDI said in a statement that its ambition for Anagram is to “regain its position as the European leader in [the] bulk wine blending and trading sector, with volumes exceeding 400,000hl per year within three years.”

One of France’s leading bulk bottlers and traders, Raphaël Michel and indeed the country were rocked in August last year when the chairman, Guillaume Ryckwaert, was arrested on fraud charges.

The company sourced wine from over 3,000 growers and 15 co-operatives in the Rhône as well as owning subsidiaries in Provence, Languedoc-Roussillon and Chile.

Earlier this year, a statement from France’s fraud office revealed that 480,000 hectolitres of table wine, totalling tens of millions of bottles, had been falsely labelled as Côtes-du-Rhône and Côtes-du-Rhône Villages and even Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Ryckwaert was released on €1 million bail and is currently awaiting trial. The operations of Anagram are in no way affected by ther criminal proceedings being taken against the former members of Raphaël Michel who have been indicted.

LDI is a subsidiary of the Labruyère family which makes wine in Beaujolais, Burgundy, Bordeaux and Champagne.

Sébastien Bouvet-Labuyère has been appointed as the new CEO.