New logo, new ranges, modernized stores: wine merchant Nicolas – now “Maison Nicolas” – announced on Monday a five-year strategic plan to regain lost growth, in particular with the fall in wine consumption.
“The wine market is decreasing, so the trend is the same for Nicolas,” explains its general director Cathy Collart Geiger, who arrived in April at the head of the group owned since 1988 by the Castel family, at the head of the wine empire of the same name.
Nicolas, which has 478 stores in France (and 80 in 11 other countries), claims a 10% market share (behind mass distribution).
The brand, with an annual turnover of about 300 million euros, has suffered since post-Covid and has since closed more points of sale than it opened.
lost turns
The period of high inflation weighed on consumer decisions, its manager explained to AFP. “And then a certain amount of turns that we haven’t taken, digital, new ranges… All of this combined means that we are effectively losing momentum where we have all the potential to get back to normal.”
Its five-year “transformation plan” aims to attract 5% of clients per year and “grow again from 2026,” explains Cathy Collart Geiger, who worked at Auchan, Intermarché and Picard.
Demonstrating his desire to get closer to his consumers, Nicolás intends to adapt the stores’ offering to their location, and open new ones in increasingly dense areas.
The brand explains that it wants to respond to the evolution of demand, with a greater number of low-end products, both still and sparkling wines, champagnes, etc., more beers and even non-alcoholic drinks.
To accompany these changes, Nicolas announces that it is becoming “Maison Nicolas” and adopts a new burgundy and white logo, with the silhouette of a small wine merchant embedded in the letters.
This logo retains the DNA of the old “Maison Nicolas” created in 1822, but wants to be “modern and speak to people every day,” explains Cathy Collart Geiger.
The management also wants to continue developing online commerce (creating an app and ultimately delivering everywhere) and, internally, promoting professional mobility within the group to “attract talent”.
Source: BFM TV
