ROCKIN’ THE BOSS LADIES
Veuve Clicquot’s Bold Woman Award is a celebration of entrepreneurs, life and, most importantly, optimism
If there’s one sector of the economy that enjoyed a Covid bump it was the champagne market. Not only do we celebrate life’s milestones with a glass of fizz at our favourite restaurant, we’re far more likely now to pop a bottle at home too, says Jean-Marc Gallot,
CEO and president of champagne house Veuve Clicquot. He was recently in South Africa for the 2023 Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award ceremony.
“A new business developed during the pandemic, namely at-home consumption. So when it was over and all the bars and restaurants reopened, we had a double market,” he tells the FM.
Veuve Clicquot is going to do its best to keep this new festive tradition going. “We need to keep on sending a strong message about drinking champagne, that it is very special,” he says. “Let’s drink some champagne to see the world in a more optimistic light.”
Certainly, there’s nothing pessimistic about either the South African champagne market (one of Veuve Clicquot’s top 10) or the entrepreneurs it celebrates through its Bold Woman Award, which was launched 50 years ago to celebrate the 200year anniversary of the champagne brand in France.
Its own legacy, after all, is thanks in great part to the company’s feisty one-time owner, Madame Clicquot. She was widowed in 1805, aged 27, and, in defiance of those who tried to talk her out of it, went on to make an incredible success of the maison. Veuve Clicquot is now part of luxury goods empire LVMH.
The company’s history is fundamental to its sense of the future, too. “When you have a
job like mine you have to think long term,” says Gallot. “My job is not to achieve a good commercial performance this year; it is to make sure we put everything in place for Veuve Clicquot to have a strong presence and success in 50 years’ time.”
Identifying the company’s next consumers is key to this sense of longevity. South Africa is the 22nd largest destination for champagne exports globally, according to industry organisation Comité Champagne. But Africa as a whole is “very, very important for Veuve Clicquot in the future,” says Gallot. “But first we have to do well where we are growing strong.”
Where the company is especially strong is in the US; no wonder Forbes magazine once ranked it number 1 in an article titled “The Top 5 Champagnes Fit for Ballers”.
If the US has
“ballers” South
Africa has ballsy women: research done by the Veuve Clic
quot International Women’s Entrepreneurship Barometer found the country has more female entrepreneurs than any of the other 26 countries it assesses.
Veuve Clicquot says the gender gap between entrepreneurs in South Africa is the smallest worldwide, something Gallot attributes to fewer societal barriers than in countries such as Japan or France.
Clearly, female entrepreneurship is in Veuve Clicquot’s DNA; so too is a sense of celebration. “We want people, when they have the pleasure to see or drink [the champagne] to feel optimistic and that everything is possible.”