febvre eyeing all-Ireland expansion

Dublin-based wine distributor, Febvre, has revealed plans for diversifying and expanding its business on an all-Ireland basis following a management buy-out last year.

Febvre’s main business is as a wine supplier to pubs, restaurants, hotels and retail outlets across the country, but it also sells an array of equipment for storing and displaying wine and it sells food including condiments and olive oil.

Speaking recently, Febvre’s managing director, Liz Coogan, revealed that the company was focused on growing its food range and expanding into the market for other spirits, such as gin. It will also be targeting niche products, such as organic and denatured wines.

The company currently has around seven or eight per cent of the Irish distribution market. It was set up in 1963 by Emile and Brenda Aiken, who took over a small wine brokerage from M Louis Febvre.

In 2017, Coogan, along with Aidan Farrell and Jim Bradley and a private investment consortium bought the company from its then owners, Isle of Man-based investment firm, Padmore Limited.

Febvre currently employs 39 people but has said that it will begin hiring more next year.

“We have been with some customers and some suppliers for over 50 years so our first aim was to keep the team intact and then look at expansion,” said Liz Coogan.

Pictured is Liz Coogan.