Valérie Chapoulaud-Floquet, the CEO of French liquor group Rémy Cointreau, will be leaving her position at the end of the year, as the group announced “with sadness”.
Exquisite record of achievements
“With deep emotion, I will be leaving the Rémy Cointreau group at the end of this year, once the torch has been passed to my successor”, the CEO stated in a press release. “I will be leaving serenely, since the results, the foundations, the teams and the strategic vision allow the group to face the future with optimism, ambition and success.” The departure comes as a surprise: Rémy Cointreau sold over 1.22 billion euros worth of liquor in split financial year 2018/19, which comes down to a 7.9 % growth in turnover. Operational profits grew organically by 14 %, reaching 263.3 million euros. Management restated its ambition to become a world leader: in short, an exquisite record of achievements.
All of that was very different when Chapoulaud-Floquet took up the position of CEO in September 2014. The group was going through a hard time then, but Chapoulaud-Floquet made Rémy Cointreau switch its focus to the ‘super premium’ market. With bottles of 50 dollars at least (fans are even willing to pay 2,500 euros for a bottle of Louis XIII cognac), this segment is growing twice as fast as the market. The CEO got the upscaling idea from companies like L’Oréal and Louis Vuitton, where she had worked before. The repositioning worked very well: the value of shares has doubled since Chapoulaud-Floquet became CEO.
The Frenchwoman announced her departure for ‘personal reasons’, the group has already confirmed that no health problems are involved. It is not yet sure who will succeed Chapoulaud-Floquet.
