by Sophie Kevany

France’s largest producer of burgundy wines, Boisset, has sold off its spirits business, citing a need to recentralise on still and sparkling wines, given rising credit costs and an increasingly tougher business climate. The brands owned by Boisset, which include l'Héritier-Guyot, Casanis, Duval, Avèze and Saint-Raphaël, have been sold to La Martiniquaise, one of France’s largest spirits groups, which turns over about €700m a year.

Boisset, which turns over about €277m a year, expanded into the spirits business in 1988 with the purchase of Bouhy. The company said at the time wine and spirits were complementary activities. “Now the spirits market has changed, there have been lots of mergers last year, and over the last three to four years and we don’t have the critical mass necessary anymore,” said Boisset spokesperson, Nathalie Bergès-Boisset.

Other reasons given for the sale included rising credit costs, new laws which allowed significant cost cutting in supermarkets to the advantage of bigger brand leaders, and the fact that Boisset’s range of predominantly anis, sweet wine and fruit liqueur drinks was not as dynamic as the whiskey or vodka market.

The sale was signed the week of 22 September 2008 and will be ratified by the French government in the next few months. The price paid by La Martiniquaise for Boisset’s spirits business was not disclosed.