Nicolas Wine Cellars “Losing Momentum”: Here is the Plan to Relaunch the 478 Stores in France

To return to growth, wine merchant Nicolas unveils a strategic plan to regain growth. The brands will take the trendy name “Maison Nicolas”.

New logo for a new life. Renewed ranges, modernized stores: wine merchant Nicolas –now “Maison Nicolas” – announced on Monday October 13, 2025 a five-year strategic plan in order to regain growth, lost in particular with the decline in wine consumption.

“The wine market is decreasing, so it’s the same trend for Nicolas”, explains its general director Cathy Collart Geiger, who arrived in April at the helm of the group owned since 1988 by the Castel family, at the head of the wine empire wine of the same name.

478 Nicolas cellars in France

Nicolas, who counts 478 stores in France (and 80 in 11 other countries), claims 10% market share (behind mass distribution).

The brand, with an annual turnover of around 300 million euros, has suffered since the post-Covid period and has since closed more points of sale than it has opened.

The period d’inflation haute weighed on consumer decisions, its manager explained to AFP. “And then a certain number of turns that we have not taken, the ‘digital’, the new ranges… All this combined means that we are indeed losing momentum where we have all the potential to go and straighten the bar”.

Its five-year “transformation plan” aims to gain 5% of customers per year and to “return to growth from 2026”, explains Ms. Collart Geiger, who worked at Auchan, Intermarché and Picard.

What changes concretely

Nicolas, who shows his desire to get closer to his consumers, intends to adapt the stores’ offering to their location, and open new ones in areas that are becoming denser.

The brand explains that it wants to meet evolving demand, with a greater number of entry-level products in still wines as well as in sparkling wines, champagnes, etc more beers or even non-alcoholic drinks.

To support these changes, Nicolas announces that he will become “Maison Nicolas” and adopts a new burgundy and white logo, featuring the silhouette of a small wine merchant embedded in the letters.

This logo keeps the DNA of the former “Maison Nicolas” created in 1822, but wants to be “modern and (wants) to talk about people on a daily basis”, explains Ms. Collart Geiger.

Management also wants to further develop online commerce (create an application, ultimately deliver everywhere) and, internally, promote professional mobility within the group to “attract talent”.