June 25th, 2025: New Princes Group buys DIAGEO plant in Italy and other news
New Princes takes DIAGEO plant in Alba, no news about Cognac and China, Changyu sells Roullet-Fransac, cachaça and female consumers, tourism in Aguascalientes and something about grape spirits...
Hello everyone!
I’m starting with some news from Italy today.
New Princes to buy Diageo plant in Northern Italy
A deal has been signed now and New Princes Group is going to get full ownership of Diageo Operations Italy S.p.A., which includes the production plant in Alba (CN), Piedmont, in the North of Italy.
I’ll go direct to the source here, yesterday a press released was launched both by DIAGEO and NewPrinces Group. I’m pasting here the link to DIAGEO’s official one, which is available online:
You can find New Princes’ press release published on the local newspaper La Voce di Alba, almost untouched:
Who is New Princes Group? This is the company website and here is an article to learn something more about it:
Newlat Food finalizes acquisition of Princes Limited, sets EUR 5 billion sales goal
(by Cliff White on SeaFoodSource)
The former Cinzano plant in Alba was just one of DIAGEO’s recent closures. In case you don’t know about the Italian plant, here is an old article by Ansa, an Italian press agency:
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Cognac and China
French Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade said something about an upcoming agreement with Beijing
I’m sorry to tell you that there is no actual news at the moment about a new agreement between France and China on brandy import conditions. We're in a period where newspapers are publishing every scrap of information they can dig up on this topic. While it can be quite frustrating — as they incessantly focus on cognac — hopefully this widespread attention will also pressure politicians to find a solution.
The French Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, Laurent Saint-Martin, was interviewed during a visit to Charente on Monday and his words are coming out on many newspapers, but he just said that an agreement is “on track”. Nothing new then. Here is an article from Le Figaro, just to give you a decent recap of the situation:
Cognac : en Chine, le sort de l’eau-de-vie charentaise «en bonne voie»
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Something more about Cognac
Chinese giant Changyu sells Roullet-Fransac brand to French company Elior
Newspapers talk about €4.8m transaction. News by Olivier Sarazin on Sud Ouest:
Cognac : le géant chinois Changyu cède la petite marque Roullet-Fransac au groupe français Elior
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Cachaça is looking for female consumers
It looks like producers are trying to focus on women a little more. Here is an article I found on NeoFeed by Leonardo Cavalcanti:
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Tourism
Aguascalientes to push “Los Caminos del Mezcal”
The region will leverage mezcal to promote tourism, according to Desarrollo Económico, Ciencia y Tecnología (Sedecyt). Article by Matilde Arteaga on Hidrocálido Digital:
Wine tourism works fine everywhere for direct sales and consumers engagement. It can be good for mezcal as well.
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Something to read (especially for the Italians out there)
How is a UK grape spirits’ producer doing?
My attention was caught by this article by Miona Madsen on The Spirits Business:
I didn’t know the company called Organic Grape Spirit and it is interesting to read what they are doing, the kind of products they make and compare them to Grappa production in Italy.
I’m leaving you with this reading today, hope you find it inspiring.
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I’ll see you on Friday!
And thank you for reading The Spirits Post :)