The Battle for Castel: A Wine Empire's Succession Crisis

A boardroom feud between the founder's daughter and the group's CEO threatens the future of France's largest wine-and-beverage conglomerate

Few names carry as much weight in the French wine trade as Castel. The Bordeaux-born group — whose portfolio spans Baron de Lestac, Listel, and Kriter, and whose Maison Nicolas chain remains a fixture of Parisian street corners — has spent more than seven decades building an empire that stretches from the vineyards of the Languedoc to the beer and soft-drink markets of sub-Saharan Africa. With roughly 40,000 employees and reported revenues of €6.5 billion in 2024, Castel is not merely a wine company. It is an industrial colossus, one whose fate now hangs on a bruising succession dispute playing out across courtrooms in Singapore and boardrooms in Luxembourg.

A Founder at Ninety-Nine

Pierre Castel, who established the group in 1949, is approaching his centenary. For decades he ran his business with the discretion typical of Bordeaux’s merchant dynasties, building a labyrinthine corporate architecture of nested holding companies designed to separate ownership from operational control. At the apex sits Investment Beverage Business Management (IBBM), a Singaporean entity, alongside the Luxembourg-based DF Holding, which oversees the three principal operating divisions: Castel Vins, Castel Afrique, and the agro-industrial subsidiary Somdiaa.

In 2023, the operational reins passed to Gregory Clerc, a Swiss national and former tax lawyer who had served as Castel’s personal legal counsel. The appointment was intended to professionalise governance and ensure continuity. Instead, it has become the catalyst for one of the most acrimonious corporate feuds the French wine industry has witnessed in recent memory.

Singapore Intervenes

The conflict escalated sharply in early February 2026. On 2 February, the Castel family — led by Pierre Castel’s sole heir, Romy Castel — convened a general assembly of IBBM shareholders and voted to strip Clerc of his directorship. The family’s position was that this removal would trigger a cascade of revocations across the group’s various entities. Clerc’s camp disputed the validity of the vote, reportedly challenging Romy Castel’s standing to cast the decisive ballots. His representatives left the assembly without signing the minutes.

The family then turned to the Singapore High Court, which issued an interim order barring Clerc from exercising any authority as an IBBM director pending the resolution of the case. It was the second attempt to dislodge the CEO; a prior effort on 8 January had failed.

A Rift Made Personal

What might have remained a dry governance dispute has taken on a deeply personal dimension. Romy Castel has publicly characterised the situation as a seizure of power driven by unchecked ego, alleging that her father has come to regret appointing Clerc and that the CEO has not visited the near-centenarian founder in over eighteen months. She has spoken of her father’s profound distress at seeing his life’s work become the subject of public controversy.

Clerc, for his part, has declined to comment on the Singapore proceedings. In an internal communication circulated in early January, he argued that his removal from the IBBM board would have no bearing on his other mandates, invoking what he described as the founder’s own desire to separate capital ownership from day-to-day management.

The Boards Rally Behind the CEO

The boards of DF Holding and Cassiopée, another key entity in the group’s structure, have publicly reaffirmed their confidence in Clerc, dismissing the family’s actions as destabilisation tactics. They have stressed that the Castel group is ultimately held through trusts designed to guarantee professional, independent governance — a structure in which no single individual or entity, including IBBM, exercises outright control. The boards have also categorically denied that any sale of the group is under consideration.

A Billion-Euro Shadow

Compounding the leadership turmoil is a fiscal threat of considerable magnitude. Castel Vins has disclosed that the group faces a potential tax reassessment in France that could, at its upper estimate, reach one billion euros. While the final figure remains uncertain, the prospect of a liability of that scale inevitably raises the stakes of the governance battle. Whoever controls Castel in the months ahead will be navigating not only a fractured family dynamic but also a potentially transformative financial reckoning with the French tax authorities.

What It Means for the Wine Trade

For the broader wine industry, the Castel affair is a cautionary tale about the perils of dynastic transition in an era of increasingly complex corporate structures. The group’s holdings in French wine — from everyday table wines to a vast retail network — make it a bellwether for the domestic market. Instability at the top could have ripple effects on supplier relationships, investment decisions, and the strategic direction of brands that millions of French consumers encounter daily.

The Singapore proceedings are expected to continue in the coming weeks. Until they conclude, the Castel empire — built over three-quarters of a century by a man who is still alive to witness its internal fracture — remains a house divided.