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The F.W. Langguth Erben winery in Traben-Trarbach (Mosel) is closed and operations are discontinued. Its sales company Quality Wine Select GmbH is also affected. All 150 employees have been given notice of redundancy, report the daily newspaper Trierer Volksfreund and SWR. Langguth is one of the largest wine producers in Germany. The large winery was only recently taken over by the French group Le Grand Chais de France (GCF), which has also owned the German bulk bottler Zimmermann& Müller in Zell (Mosel) for the past year.
Matthias Schwunk, Executive Director International Wines & Spirits at GCF, explained to the "Trierischer Volksfreund" that the takeover had created "a situation that we had not expected". The company was therefore forced to give notice to all employees. The reason was the closure of the plant. However, GCF has offered many employees the opportunity to apply for a vacant position within the group of companies in Zell, Mainz or Alsace.
Langguth's existing orders will be taken over by the Zimmermann& Müller winery, which is to be expanded into GCF's German headquarters. Schwunk explained that "Zell has developed very positively since the takeover".
GCF is the largest wine exporter in France and, with a turnover of around 1.5 billion euros, is one of the five largest winery companies in the world. F.W. Langguth Erben was founded in 1789 and is one of the oldest wineries in Germany. The company has been run by the same family for seven generations. One of its best-known export wine brands is "Blue Nun". Around 1.1 billion bottles of wine have been sold worldwide since 1921.
(uka / Source: Trierischer Voksfreund, SWR)