Why the Saumur Wine Producing Cooperative was re-branded “ROBERT ET MARCEL”
The new label of the Saumur wine cooperative
The ‘Caves des Vignerons de Saumur’, Route de Samoussay, Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg is the Saumur Cooperative, about 12 kilometres from our gites at Le Clos des Guyons and a real must visit for our guests during their holiday! The tour begins with a large, twelfth century vaulted cellar and from there it continues in the maze of 100 kms of underground galleries. Indeed an underground ‘safari’ and great place to visit, taste and buy wines of the region.
Initially we thought why would they want to call a Cooperative Cave Robert and Marcel but apparently the reason for the new name is that Robert and Marcel Neau were the names of the founding Chairman and Director back in 1957 and hence the Cooperative wanted to put this story forward. Marc Bonnin became President of the winery in January 2013.
The new name was unveiled on November 14th 2013, so with continual quality improvement over the past few years and a respectable haul of medals, a new logo and new marketing strategy, they have chosen this concept to be at the heart of their new strategy whilst all employees are now apparently called Robert or Marcel!
At first, the new brand will apply to wines sold in the basement of the Cooperative at Saint-Cyr-en-Bourg, which annually hosts 56,000 customers a year, the biggest individual selling point in the Val-de-Loire (10% of turnover of the cooperative, or 2.5 million€ ).
Afterwards the label Robert and Marcel will be available throughout region in 2014 through Alliance Loire, responsible for marketing the wines of the cooperative, and finally at the national level in 2015.
Good Luck to the new initiative!!
A bientot!
Brian
Gites in the Loire Valley 