by Sophie Kevany

In a move that has surprised the industry, France’s largest wine producer Castel has sold Oddbins, one of the two wine retail chains it owns. The price paid for Oddbins, sold to a UK based wine company, Ex Cellar -which has one shop in France and one in the UK - was not disclosed.

A source close to the deal however said the sale value was “a lot less than £57m”, the amount Castel was reported to have paid for Oddbins in 2002.

Since then, however, a number of Oddbins shops have been closed, and some turned into Nicolas shops, the other, more profitable chain, owned by Castel. The management of Oddbins by Castel had been subject to criticism in the UK. As of December 2006 Oddbins, reported losses of £8.6m.

It is understood that talks about the sale started about a year ago, when Ex Cellar, founded in 1999 by Simon Balie and Henry Young, approached Castel with the intention of buying a number of wine outlets. Castel then offered to sell them the entire Oddbins chain.

Rumours of an Oddbins sale to Thresher, another UK retail chain, circulating in 2007, were denied by Castel in December of that year.

The sale, which has been finalised and signed, is somewhat complicated by the fact that Castel had begun streamlining the Nicolas and Oddbins chains, merging head office functions in January this year.

For the moment Ex Cellar says the Oddbins senior management team, including Ayo Akintola, HR Director, will remain in their positions.

Previous Oddbins director, Fabrice Bidault, and deputy director Eudes Morgan, will be replaced by Henry Young as chairman and Simon Balie as Managing Director.

Balie, who is the son of a former director of Oddbins, Nick Balie, said Ex Cellar’s retail experience, and his knowledge of what used to make Oddbins great, would bring renewed energy to the chain.