After almost nine years at the helm, Benoit Collard is leaving Piper-Heidsieck, owned by French luxury goods group EPI. He leaves behind a Champagne House revitalized by multiple initiatives.
He got the job done…
After giving Piper-Heidsieck a great boost for almost nine years, Benoît Collard has just announced on Linkedin his departure from the management of the Champagne House, owned since 2011 by the EPI luxury group.
“After careful consideration, I have decided that it is time for me to take on new challenges,” announced the executive on the professional social network.
A graduate of HEC in 1997 and INSEAD in 2008, Benoit Collard began his career with Nestlé Waters before joining Lvmh in 1997, where he developed the group’s champagne, wine and spirits brands, including Moët Hennessy in Champagne, Napa Valley in Germany and France, in a variety of positions.
In 2012, he joined Rémy Cointreau before taking thehelm in 2025 of Piper-Heidsieck, owned by EPI since 2011.
A sense of accomplishment
Benoit Collard leaves with a sense of accomplishment.
“Thanks to a great team, their dedication and their confidence in the vision we shared, Piper-Heidsieck has regained its place at the heart of Champagne and built solid foundations for a promising future,” he enthused on Linkedin.
In fact, Benoit Collard is not content to rest on Piper Heidsieck’s laurels.
For God if his storytelling is dazzling…
Founded in 1785 by Florens-Louis Heidsieck, the House has succeeded in making its name shine not only since its birth, but also in modern times, thanks to two illustrious godmothers.
Marie Antoinette and Marylin Monroe as “muses
The first is none other than Queen Marie-Antoinette, who was seduced by champagne and became its first ambassador before the era of muses and other influencers.
The second is another celebrity with a tragic destiny: the international star Marilyn Monroe, who declared in a now-famous interview that she went to bed “with a few drops of Chanel N°5”, and woke up… “with a glass of Piper-Heidsieck”!
But to the current success of the Champagne House, “the most awarded of the century” as Benoit Collard pointed out in an interview with HEC magazine, he also made a significant contribution.
In his Linkedin post, the former director himself referred to “the geographical repositioning of our sales, the evolution of our product mix and the marketing choices we made”, which “enabled us to achieve strong double-digit growth at a time when the market contracted by 2.7%, and to restore our profitability”.
The world’s strongest growth
According to the IWSR (International Wine and Spirits Record), recognized as a benchmark for statistics on the global alcoholic beverage market, Piper-Heidsieck is indeed the House with the strongest growth in the world between 2015 and 2022!
In 2023, it sold 5 million bottles, 90% of which were exported, in 70 countries.
In his post, Benoît Collarden mentions a number of noteworthy initiatives in the areas of marketing, sustainable development and communications.
In terms of marketing, he recalled “the launch of the Essentiel (aged 4 to 5 years on lees) and Hors-Série collections, and marketing innovations such as Piper Lipstick and BBQ”.
On the communications front, Benoit Collard has driven “significant partnerships with Tennis Australia Australian Open or the Ballon d’Or, significant sponsorships of the Preljocaj ballet and La Cinémathèque française”.
Piper-Heids has further strengthened its special place in the world of culture, and cinema in particular. Since 1993, Piper-Heidsieck has been making its bubbles sparkle at the world’s greatest film festivals, including the Cannes Film Festival and the Oscars until 2020.
A must today, the House also partners with new festivals promoting inclusion, such as the Independent Film Spirit Awards.
First Champagne House to be certified B-Corp
On the sports front , Piper-Heidsieck has also been a supplier to the Rolex Paris Masters, the world’s biggest indoor tennis tournament, since 2021.
Finally, in terms of sustainable development, Benoit Collard highlighted the company’s “ B-Corp certification” and its commitment to the NGO “Team for the Planet”.
Along with Charles Heidsieck and Rare Champagne, the other E.P.I. Houses, Piper-Heidsieck was one of the first Champagne Houses in 2022 to obtain B Corp (Beneficial Corporation) certification, awarded to companies that have demonstrated their virtuous approach to social and environmental issues, public transparency and legal responsibility.
Finally, Benoît Collard also expressed his “gratitude” to everyone in the markets and in Reims for the birth ofRare Champagne (the multi-press group’s Maison which is only published in exceptional years, ed. note) as an autonomous brand, which during the 7 years I’ve been in charge, until 2022, has seen its crown shine all over the world”.
In the EPI Group since 2011
150 years after its creation in 1988, Maison Piper-Heidsieck fell into the hands of the Rémy Cointreau group, before joining the EPI (Entreprise Patrimoniale d’Investissement) group in 2011.
The two-headed luxury group (wine and fashion) EPI was founded in 1974 by Jean-Louis Descours, a former major shareholder in the Vivarte group, and developed mainly through external growth.
On the fashion side, EPI acquired shoe manufacturer JM Weston in 1974, Alain Figaret shirts in 2006 (since sold to Experienced Capital Partner) and Bonpoint (children’s fashion) in 2007.
On the wine side, in 1981 he created the vineyard Château la Verrerie, which produces an AOC wine in the Luberon region, before acquiringthe two champagnes Piper Heidsieck and Charles Heidsieck in 2011. In 2017 and again in 2022, the EPI Group also acquired two renowned Italian wineries based in Tuscany, namely Biondi-Santi, producer of the famous “Brunello di Montalcino”, and Isole e Olena, the emblematic birthplace of Chianti Classico.
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Featured Photo: © Piper-Heidsieck
