Boutinot, the international wine business, has completed a management buy-out led by Dennis Whiteley, Michael Moriarty and Tony Brown MW. Barclays Bank and Araldica Castelvero, the Piemonte based wine cooperative and one of Boutinot’s key supply partners, have supported the MBO.
UK based Boutinot was established over 30 years ago in the North West of England by Paul Boutinot who will now step down to focus on Waterkloof, the biodynamic wine farm that he has created in South Africa. Peter Renshaw, Boutinot’s chairman for the last 10 years, is also retiring and Claudio Manera, General Manager of Araldica, is replacing him as non-executive chairman.
Boutinot has a portfolio of over 1000 wines and is the exclusive UK agent to 150 producers from around the world. It has under 80 employees and an annual turnover of over £95m. The business will continue to operate under the current management structure.
Winner of the Sommelier Wine Award’s Merchant of the Year for the fourth consecutive year, Boutinot has delivered consistent performance and growth across all its sales channels year on year. The business supplies UK and international retailers, restaurateurs and wholesalers and, in addition to representing a portfolio of producers, owns vineyards and produces wines from production sites in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
Paul Boutinot commented, “I’m thrilled that the business has been taken on by the team I know well. It is good for the staff, the loyal customer base and the producers, many of whom have been close to the business since the beginning. The team is well-placed to take the business forward and build on the success they have already created.”
Dennis Whiteley, Managing Director of Boutinot, commented: “Quite simply, it is business as usual with the same challenges ahead of us as we faced yesterday. The strength of our business has always been its talented, hard working and dedicated people who are passionate about the wines we sell and the customers we have the privilege to supply. We have had an amazing time working as a team with Paul and Peter and have seen huge changes within our industry but our values and working philosophy have remained the same and will continue to do so.”