Cava giant Freixenet to join forces with UK's Copestick Murray

Cava producer Freixenet has announced plans to merge with wholesaler and importer Copestick Murray as from January 2019.  

This follows Henkells acquisition of over half (50.7%) of Grupo Freixenet in July this year.  

The new company will be called Freixenet-Copestick and will be headed up by Robin Copestick, current managing director and joint founder of Copestick Murray and Damian Clarke, managing director of Freixenet UK.  

The newly merged company will have a joint turnover of over £100m in 2019, and is confident of becoming the number one branded supplier of sparkling wine in the UK, in both volume and value terms.  

Key wines from the joint portfolio include i heart Wines and Mionetto, which together will account for around 60% of the company’s turnover. Both brands are currently performing well in the UK market, with Freixenet now the leading brand in the total sparkling wine and Champagne category, and the fastest growing brand in the top 50 wine brands with 49% year on year growth.

Meanwhile, i heart Wines is worth £75m and is experiencing growth of 42% year on year, and is the 13th biggest brand in the total market. Mionetto is the world’s best selling Prosecco SKU and continues to make strong ground in the UK market.  

A particular strength of these flagship brands has been ongoing new product development, with the recent launches of Freixenet Prosecco and Italian Rose, as well as i heart Champagne Didier Chopin and new format cans.    

 “It’s great to have this opportunity to join with another rapidly growing UK wine business," said Damian Clarke. "Copestick Murray has complementary skills to Freixenet but shares our approach of putting the consumer at the heart of what we do. Our combined business will be a leader in the sparkling wine category and with the resources and backing of Henkel and Freixenet we are well placed to continue driving category growth.”  

“I am incredibly excited and honoured to be working with the Freixenet brand again,” added Copestick. “My first job in London was selling Cordon Negro for Moreno Wines in the 1980’s so my life has now gone full circle.”