by Joel B. Payne
Racke International announced at a press conference in Mainz this morning that it has acquired the shares of KWV to become with 87.5% the majority owner of the Eggers & Franke group, retrospective to 1 July 2007. Racke will incorporate its
national distributional activities into the new Racke, Eggers & Franke Holding, based in Bremen, with the Meier family remaining as minority shareholders in the new group. Christoph Meier, former managing director of Eggers & Franke in fourth generation, will head the new company as managing partner. Eberhard Cadenbach, responsible for sales on the Racke board, will join the new team as managing director. Stephan Meier will continue to act as marketing director.
As part of the transition, Racke will sell its production facilities in Hechtheim and, if governmental authorities do not block the transaction, also brands such as Amselkeller, Bongeronde and Viala to Les Grands Chais de France.
The new group will supply the German trade with an assortment of international wine and spirits through a number of specialised subsidiaries, which, beyond Eggers & Franke, also include Reidemeister & Ulrichs and Johann Eggers Sohn for the on-trade portfolio. The group also owns two direct mail wine clubs, Ruyter & Ast and Ludwig von Kapff, which together serve some 40.000 private consumers.
KWV, one of South Africa’s largest producers, which had owned the majority of Eggers & Franke since 1996, will remain on board as one of the most important suppliers of the new group, which also offers from the Racke side not only Lamberti, Blanchet and Yellow Tail, but also the joint venture brands Golden Kaan and Espiritu de Chile that the company has developed over the past few years.
The new fully family-owned group is poised to become one of the leading distributors of fine wine in Germany. With the various brands that were brought into the partnership, the two old groups had a combined turnover of €115m ($167m). By concentrating their efforts of distribution, the new company expects to more than build on its past success.
