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. From one market we got two,” 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, worldwide) or the entrepreneurs it celebrates through its Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award, which was launched 50 years ago to celebrate the 200-year anniversary of the champagne brand in France.
Madame Clicquot 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
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, controlled by French tycoon Bernard Arnault.
The company’s long 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 Veuve Clicquot’s biggest market in Africa and the 22nd largest destination for champagne exports globally, according to industry organisation Comité Champagne. The continent, however, 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 Clicquot International Women’s Entrepreneurship Barometer found that South Africa has more female entrepreneurs than any of the other 26 countries it assesses.
In most countries the percentage of women who want to become entrepreneurs stands at under 50%, while in South Africa this has grown to 63%; Veuve Clicquot says the gender gap between men and women entrepreneurs in this country is the smallest worldwide, and Gallot attributes this to fewer societal barriers than in countries such as Japan or France.
Clearly, female entrepreneurship is in the Veuve Clicquot brand’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. We are happy to bring a touch of optimism.”
Veggie garden in a box
This year’s Bold Woman Award winner, Claire Blanckenberg, has revolutionised home food growing with her colour-coded seed tape system. Reel Gardening started as an idea when she was at school, wanting to make extra pocket money. Today it’s an operation that employs 42 people. Over the past two years it’s established more than 60,000 vegetable gardens across South Africa.
The R450 box requires 16m² of fertile land and two litres of water a day to keep a family of four fed for an entire year, with four servings of vegetables a day.
An app now guides users on which crops grow better when apart or together, and when to water the plants. “It really is a ‘paint by numbers solution’ so all of the guesswork is taken out,” says Blanckenberg.
The company sells its wares purely online, but offers branded solutions for other campaigns, too — notably Checkers Little Garden, where Reel Gardening manufactured 20-million small gardening pots for the retailer.
Blanckenberg says the award delivers “a halo” of sorts and adds to the company’s entrepreneurial credibility. She’s had approaches from parties interested in buying a stake, but says: “It’s very difficult to find equity partners that weigh up people and planet as much as profit. But if the right company is reading this we would love to explore it.”
Lawyer on the frontline
The winner of the 2023 Bold Future Award, Zama Ngcobo, established her law firm WMN Attorneys in January 2021 and now has 12 people on board. The company’s name is an acronym combining the first letter of the word “women” and some of Ngcobo’s initials.
The formation of the business was driven by the idea of wanting to change two stereotypes: of being black and of being a woman, Ngcobo tells the FM. “I’ve seen too many talented black women leave the profession because they felt they were not being taken seriously or were not being supported in the profession.”
The need for work-life balance applies to all women, she says. “We’re trying to establish a firm where those [issues] are less challenging and where policies that support the progress of women are the norm.”
Ngcobo was determined not just to start a law firm but to make a lot of noise about it, too. Her clients include blue-chip companies such as Anglo American and African Rainbow Minerals, and the firm has already advised businesses in over 35 countries on more than 5,000 projects.
Ngcobo says the Bold Future Award has put the firm on the map on a wider international scale.
"We’re very proud to be associated with the Veuve Bold awards, given that we’re also young and making it work, like Madame Clicquot when she first started,” she says.
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