Richard Frères

creation date: Jan 2025

In the 20th century, Richard Frères was an important house in Saint-Jean d’Angely. Its foundation date is said to be 1830, but according to a well documented source, it was founded in 1850, when André Richard, who had a business in iron and charcoal, began to take an interest in cognac. In the 1910s, his son Philippe, who was already working with André, formally took over the company and it was renamed Ph. Richard et Cie, with his sons Charles and Achile joining him. A distillery was built in 1900, followed by a chais and an office.

When his sons took over, the name was changed to Richard Frères.

In 1912, the fourth generation joined the family business: Daniel asked his nephew Émile, aged 23, to assist him. Unfortunately, Émile perished in the sinking of the Titanic. Philippe and Jacques, the sons of Daniel and Charles respectively, continued to develop sales of the family cognac in France and abroad.

The company flourished in the first half of the 20th century. They acquired the Sicard & Fils brand in 1929, which remained a subsidiary until it was absorbed by Richard Frères in the 1970s. Five large new cellars were built in the 1940s. In 1959, the company bought Vinicole Charentaise, formed from the merger of Veuve Robert et Fils, Audouin Frères and Veuve L. Veau et Fils. This also made them owners of the M. de Reboul brand, which had been bought up by Vinicole Charentaise in 1940.
In the 1970s, the wine cellars expanded again with the Sicard et Fils wine cellars in Rue Michel Texier, with which Richard has close ties. During this period, the aforementioned Jacques Richard (1912-1996) became mayor of St.-Jean d’Angely between 1971 and 1977.

At the end of the 1970s, Richard, once the most successful cognac house in town, was in turn sold to Cognac-based Compagnie Commerciale de Guyenne. The buildings on rue Élysée-Loustalot were taken over by the cognac company Chabasse and a medical laboratory. The cellars on rue Michel-Texier were bought by CCG.

Michel Coste merged Richard Fères with Reau Frères, which he had also bought, to form Reau-Richard Frères. This was essentially a holding company for some other small brands and was liquidated in 2013. Richard Frères and Reau Frères were officially liquidated in 1984.

Brand names that were bought by Richard Frères: