With 82 years, the energetic founder and CEO of the Castel group, drew the balance of his recent acquisitions and his other day-to-day projects in the South-West. “You know, wine offers a high turnover but little payoff, this is the contrary in my other activities. Yet I have sold my water assets for 860 million Euros this year, because I had problems with my associate. Business is not a bullfight: one doesn’t spend his time playing among the torero and the bull. At my age, I don’t want any more quarrels, I’ve turned that page over. But still, I haven’t forbidden myself to return to the water trade.”

After the buyback of the Bordeaux merchant Oenoalliance and huge investments in the Loire region, Pierre Castel presents himself discreet about the possibility of external growth in the wine sector: “The best for us would be volumes and brands. One needs opportunities… (…) Buying a renowned estate? Maybe, if there are opportunities, but I don’t want to overpay, because agricultural investment is always risky due to factors like the climate. I’ve just invested in beer in Guinea and Nigeria: I am interested in Africa, so I have bought at once. With wine, it is necessary to look closer (…): The group has a strong enough budget, but it shouldn’t be wasted on whatever business that will pose worries like Oddbins, the English wine merchant chain, that we have just sold.” (See our previous articles about Castel: click here and here.)