A TRunblocked.com Exclusive: Anne-Laure Pressat-Priore, Global Executive Director, Louis XIII Cognac, Interviewed.
15 minutes read
Introduction by: Peter Marshall
This is a rare interview. It was such a great pleasure to meet Anne-Laure Pressat-Priore, Global Executive Director, Louis XIII Cognac late last year. It is both a business and personal interview and defines everything you need to know about this unique brand – its DNA, its history, its progress in difficult times and its future.
Peter Marshall (PM): Welcome to TRunblocked.com, Anne-Laure. Now your journey is quite unique. You come from being a brand ambassador to Global Executive Director of LOUIS XIII and your time has arguably been marked by both transformation and innovation. How has your experience on the field shaped your approach to leading teams through change for such a remarkable and storied brand.
Anne-Laure Pressat-Priore (ALP): Merci, Peter. Very happy to be with you. Thank you for interviewing me. So, as you said, I started as a brand ambassador and now I am the Global Executive Director.
As a brand ambassador, I was in the field. I did this job for three years. You are in the field day and night. I started in London and my office was the on trade, the off trade accounts where I spent 100% of my time.
I must say that the field is the best way to start because that’s where you learn everything. And I loved it. You meet people in real life, you have the client in front of you, you see immediately if they like it or not, if your speech is working or not, if there is anything missing. You see the direct impact of your efforts and learn many soft skills that you would not be able to learn in an office.
So for me the field was necessary and I often think about this experience. Because each time that I’m developing a product and imagining a new experience for a client, it reminds me of the time where I was on the field and I would ask myself: would it work? Is it too complicated? It helped me put a filter that I use on any new development.
PM: Do you still go back into the field?
ALP: I do not go back as much as you do, but I travel as much as I can and I love it. I still have strong relationships with bar managers and retailers. I’m still very much in contact because, for me, that’s where the heartbeat of the brand is. It is thanks to this community.
PM: Exactly. Now, travel retail has become critical for luxury spirits. Yet it’s been a fairly torrid time for the LOUIS XIII brand these past couple of years. How does LOUIS XIII continue to approach elevating the travel retail experience in ways that are unique to the brand when the market is effectively going backwards?
ALP: It’s a challenge. We are lucky with LOUIS XIII because we have been there for more than a century and we will be there for the next century. That’s a fact. The challenge we have is how do we keep inspiring people? How do we keep recruiting people in a world where everything has changed, so fast. So our mission is to keep innovating while keeping the essence of what LOUIS XIII is. Have you tried LOUIS XIII?
PM: Yes. It’s quite remarkable.
ALP: So we call it the perfume of time. It’s equal to none. But it can be, sometimes, both impressive and intimidating. So it was very important to us to keep being bold, keep being a pioneer. That’s why we developed innovations such as The Drop, you know, breaking the traditional codes on how you taste LOUIS XIII. There are no white gloves, no spear, no crystal glasses. It’s just one drop because, with LOUIS XIII, you appreciate it drop by drop and one drop is enough to understand its aromatic complexity.
So it is very important to keep being a pioneer and innovative. That’s how we can keep recruiting and attract the clientele while looking after our core clients.
PM: But your core clients are getting older and you have to address new market conditions and develop and nurture new customers. And I think there’s an obvious follow up question. It’s really about the market reality. How do you actually measure your brand experience impact on brand equity versus the real need to generate immediate sales? I mean, just how much of a balancing act is it?
ALP: We need to nourish our brand equity, which will later result in conversion. Everything we do needs to have a sense, it needs to showcase our value of craftsmanship and heritage.
For example, last year we developed a new technique of gold leaf personalization. So here we have an artisan on site who will personalize the coffret with a city design in gold leaf – Hong Kong, Singapore, for example.
PM: It adds to a real sense of place.
ALP: Exactly.
PM: Perhaps I should say ‘spirit of place’. But how do you find your approach works in terms of differentiating yourself from becoming even more important? The gold leaf personalisation is a good example of the brand standing out. It is innovation and it’s relevant because it now responds to what customers are actually looking for.
But if you take it a stage further and we look at actual brand development, what are you doing physically in store, on airports – whether it’s pop ups, even moving to something like a tableware collection for example, which is quite a broadening of your canvas as a brand, isn’t it? What are you doing now that is different, that really does stand out for the brand?
ALP: I would say our strength is how we build a true and authentic relationship with our clients and how we nourish it. That’s where we spend most of our time and effort – to build a relationship and to make them live an experience like no other. Thanks to a taste of LOUIS XIII, of course, but not only this. So you mentioned the pop ups. We’ve done different pop ups. At the moment, we have the winter pop up, which looks beautiful in ski stations and we are looking to transport this into the GTR world as well, to create an experience outside of this world. We have been working as well with some first-class lounges – Air France for example, where we know our client will have a little bit of time to relax and will appreciate a new discovery, a new experience, and will remember it. Those experiences, of course, are where you need to have time. And time, you know, is our most precious resource. Our clients don’t have much time.
So when you manage to meet your clients and make them live an experience – whether it lasts 10 or 15 minutes in this kind of environment – that’s why private lounges are the best way for us to interact in a very intimate yet very powerful way. Because you need to tell the story of LOUIS XIII and it takes time. So obviously you have GTR for it, where you have the best execution at the highest standards. It’s the window of the world. But I believe you need to go a little bit further to interact and to create this relationship.
PM: I think, just a complete aside, that perhaps you could consider working in collaboration with other brands – and this is now possible on cruise lines as well as in some airports – like Davidoff, as an example, who consider themselves a luxury brand. I can see there’s synergy between you and a brand like that or even a luxury French chocolate brand perhaps, to generate interest and appeal.
ALP: Absolutely.
PM: And this cross-fertilisation between categories is becoming an increasing thing. We’re seeing more of it appear and I think you’re a great candidate for that. As I said, it’s just an aside.
So moving on. Canada, Mexico and Australia are markets that have been identified by LOUIS XIII, as new growth opportunities. What are the factors that have led LOUIS XIII to identify these rather unconventional target markets rather than the classic ones? And how do you tailor the brand narrative for such culturally diverse luxury audiences in Travel Retail?
ALP: LOUIS XIII is a global brand. Our clients are living in every corner of the world. So that might surprise you. But I love doing a LOUIS XIII dinner where I ask people where they are from. Especially in London. I spent six years there and I love the diversity of our clients, where, at one table, you could have Singaporean, Indian and other nationalities. Our clients are very diversified and live across the world. So there is no surprise in targeting new markets. We have around 100 different nationalities in our database.
PM: So you think then that the advertising approach that you take, the sales approach, can remain the same amongst all territories?
ALP: I think you adapt. Well, obviously our product is the same and we won’t change it. That’s very powerful. You have one LOUIS XIII and it has been the same for 100 years and it will be the same for another 100 years. That’s something we won’t change. We won’t change the decanter either. The decanter has been unchanged since 1850. It’s iconic and we won’t change it.
What we do change is the way we communicate, the way we approach the client. And we make sure that we approach it in a very authentic, very sincere way. It’s how we build a relationship. We capture the attention, and we surprise the client.
PM: So there are different narratives in different territories?
ALP: They will have some different sensibilities, but the core will be the same.
PM: So it’s a variation on a theme.
ALP: Exactly. I love going around different countries because obviously our sales team have got the same sales speech, but they will bring their hearts into it and it will feel different every time. So, for example in Australia we have a brand ambassador, who will adapt our pitch to the culture. We also make many parallels with local artisanship. We do this in China, with lacquer.
PM: Got it. So, keeping on the subject of target markets, in an era where luxury brands look for relevance with younger audiences in particular, what strategies are you employing in the field to modernize LOUIS XIII, without diluting its mystique or heritage? Do you think that Generation Z actually ‘get’ the LOUIS XIII proposition?
ALP: Our answer was very simple. We wanted to break the code because, as I say, LOUIS XIII or cognac in general can be intimidating. So first, one of the big ways to modernize a brand was to launch THE DROP- 1 centiliter of LOUIS XIII. It took us quite some time to develop it because we broke all the codes. We say, okay, LOUIS XIII is to be enjoyed drop by drop, so we’ll create something which is 1 centiliter.
PM: Its packaging makes it look like it’s a 1 centiliter bottle of LOUIS XIII boutique perfume.
ALP: Exactly. And for us that was a way to attract and recruit. And it has been extremely successful. 80% of buyers of THE DROP are new clients – and younger clients.
And you can wear it, so we created a bottle case for it that can be customized with your initials. And our clients love it. It democratizes it even though it is still the same liquid. Either you open it and you put it in the LOUIS XIII iconic glass or you can sip it drop by drop.
And I remember when we got the idea, our Cellar Master wanted to make sure that it respected the liquid. It does. You know, I believe that this may be the smallest decanter of LOUIS XIII, but perhaps it’s the most powerful because it gives you a freedom, a playfulness with the choice of colors, with how you display it. You’ve seen it in airports around the counter.
PM: The beauty is it becomes accessible in terms of people who perhaps haven’t got the budget to go for the much larger bottle, but to go for something smaller – to trial, taste and then to savour. Perhaps even to save for the bigger bottle!
ALP: Absolutely, wait for the biggest occasion. It was a dream for us, making this product – to keep the essence of LOUIS XIII while simultaneously being innovative and breaking all the codes of consumption. You know, immutable yet modern and disruptive.
PM: But we need to see something newer from you this year. Is there anything on the cards?
ALP: We have many things that I can’t reveal for now. One of our groundbreaking innovations that followed THE DROP was the refill, which we call the Infinity Experience. Not necessarily for the same clientele, but the refill was an excellent introduction because some clients seek sustainable solutions, and the refill strongly values this need. Others are very emotionally tied to their decanter because it has been passed on, say, by their father, or grandparents, so they’re attached to it. So to offer a refill of LOUIS XIII was a great way as well to establish ourselves as a sustainable luxury brand. This was very important because when you are a brand that will stay for a long time, you need to make sure that you do things in the right way.
PM: And, of course, consumers are now moving in that direction. They expect brands to demonstrate that they are being sustainable and taking sustainable actions.
Now, I interviewed Ian McLernon recently and he talks about terroir with some passion and I know you do, too. But given your commitment, you just mentioned sustainability, how do you set about innovating and competing in a market which can still preserve your unique ethos as a business? I mean, sometimes there needs to be offsets, no? You can’t actually deliver everything you like to do precisely because of the production process involved. But you can do things with bottle weight, you can do things with transportation. So what else are you doing?
ALP: So, on LOUIS XIII, there is no compromise. Everything we do, we do it at a level of excellence. So we’ve done the refill, which was extremely important for us, first for its sustainable promise but also for the experience it offers. When you want to refill your decanter, you arrive, we clean your decanter, we can engrave it to add an emotional value to it, and then there is the refill experience with the Infinity wheel that will last two minutes in front of the client. It combines both experience and sustainability. Then, three years ago, time flies, we revamped our coffret completely. We were the first to use 100% cellulosic material, which reduced our carbon footprint by 57%.
PM: Cellulosic- that’s quite a mouthful, I don’t think I could say that properly if I had a little too much to drink!
ALP: Ha! Well, in all the communication that we do we also showcase the fact that LOUIS XIII has been there for 100 years and will be there for the next 100 years. We need to be careful of our planet. I don’t know if you’ve seen the communication campaign with Pharrell Williams. He created a song, we invited 100 people into a room, we took their phones away so no one could record it. He played the song and we said the song will only be available in 100 years. The time it takes to craft a decanter of LOUIS XIII. Only #If we care about sustainability, about preserving our heritage, our savoir faire, our know how. So everything we do, should it be communication, product, experience, we do our very best to make it in a sustainable, luxury way.
PM: So have there then been examples of where you’ve actually sacrificed profit for sustainability and,where you’ve shown restraint over change so you’re not chasing the dollar all the time? Are you actually keeping true to your ethos as a business in terms of nurturing sustainability rather than just looking at profitability?
ALP: It’s part of an equation. Our next limited edition will come on the market. It was a no-brainer that it needed to be a limited Co2 footprint. And I believe that’s our responsibility.
PM: Well, what you’re saying contrasts quite strongly with some other players in the market place that are basically juggling in a different way. Okay, so let’s move on to a personal question. Can you pinpoint one decision in your career at LOUIS XIII which was the single most disruptive for you. Were you affected? I mean change, real change – I don’t mean moving out of a studio in London.
ALP: You know, we do our best at LOUIS XIII to be a pioneer in everything we do. Because when LOUIS XIII was created, the category didn’t exist. The family created a whole category. So we try to be a pioneer in the way we distribute our products, too. We were the first brand in 2016 to have our own boutique. That was very bold in the way we distribute and we advertise our product. That’s one example. The second would be THE DROP. When we came with this proposition, it was very disruptive in terms of innovation, in ways of consumption and distribution. And now that I look at it, I love the fact that with LOUIS XIII, disruptive action is part of our DNA. Each time we do things with LOUIS XIII, we do our best to break the codes, to be a pioneer, to innovate in the way we do things and in the way we act.
PM: Interesting that you talk ‘we’, not ‘me’. So you just see this as being a team leader.
ALP: For sure.. So you never do things for you. You do things for the brand, for the brand equity. And it’s teamwork. 1000%. You know, when you go to Cognac, you meet 900 winegrowers who will select the best eaux-de-vie. Their grandfathers were doing it before them. Then you have the Cellar Master who is putting aside the eaux-de-vie from the previous generation himself. We have a strong vision at LOUIS XIII, a strong ambition to create an emotion equal to none created by the experience, the tasting itself. And we put all our heart and passion into the distribution, in the commercialization, and the innovation – for LOUIS XIII to continue captivating people, inspiring them to discover this unique brand.
You were mentioning the tableware collection. It was a perfect excuse to talk about LOUIS XIII in a different way.
We created two collections. One is called ‘Soil is our Soul’ to pay tribute to the terroir of Grande Champagne, the 1st cru of Cognac. The chalky soil of this terroir is where everything starts. So we reproduced this exact material. And for us it was the perfect way to explain where we come from and why LOUIS XIII is what it is, its exceptional potential of aging and the high complexity of the soil that results in the aromatic complexity of the eaux-de-vie.
The second collection was called ‘Light of time’, because time is so important and because you have a unique notion of time with LOUIS XIII, which can take up to a century of making and which goes beyond everything. Both collections have been produced in very limited quantities of just 750 pieces, which echoes the capacity of a single tierçon, a centenarian wooden cask that safeguards our eaux-de-vie.
This launch also allowed us to animate our boutique and elevate our client experience. Because usually when you experience LOUIS XIII, you do it through a tasting, through a dinner. So this was a perfect way to convey our DNA in a very different way.
PM: How many boutiques have you now got?
ALP: We have eight, located mainly in China, one in London, in Harrods, and one in Cognac.
PM: You know, I met Baptiste Loiseau, your cellar master, a couple of years ago. He’s your youngest ever cellar master. He lives and breathes the product. He really does, the passion that he has. And when he talked about your Centenary Edition, he said he wanted to create something that was classic, yet modern. I think he got the balance just about right.
ALP: And before Baptiste, you have Pierrette Trichet. She was the only woman Cellar Master in the big Cognac Houses. And Pierrette has chosen Baptiste, who she has transmitted her knowledge and passion to for 7 years.
I haven’t mentioned this story before about our Centenary Edition. So, before being Global Executive Director, I was in charge of innovation. And we had a decanter that we wanted our four Cellar Masters to sign. So we asked them to come together in a room to sign the decanter. And at the end of the signature ceremony, I thought that we would have a nice dinner, and at the end raise a glass of LOUIS XIII.
But no one was talking, so I asked myself if there was something wrong. There was silence. One minute, two minutes. Finally, the oldest one, Andre Giraud, said to Baptiste: “Well done, Baptiste, you haven’t changed anything”. And during this moment, honestly, I realized that it was a work of four generations. Four Generations to create LOUIS XIII.
PM: It was like a collective art form straddling four generations. You could probably feel the palpable emotion in that room at the time.
ALP: You have no idea. Which is why no one, no one at LOUIS XIII says: “I”. It doesn’t make sense.
PM: That defines the product.
ALP: Yes.
PM: So just returning from that slightly emotional moment today, what is your strategy for 2026? Are we going to see something that’s really real kick ass from you?
ALP: Yes, you will see something really cool soon, which is new in the way we experience LOUIS XIII.
It’s going to be launched in September. We will break the code again on how we experience it. For me, strategy is how we keep innovating, being bold, breaking the codes on what has been done, exactly like we’ve done with THE DROP.
We will be introducing something very new, very different. I’m sure our clients will love it and will be inspired. So how do we keep innovating? How do we keep captivating and recruiting new clients? I believe we do so with true innovation. So, again, for LOUIS XIII, it’s all about pushing boundaries, continuous innovation and keeping building relationships with our clients. These are our two pillars.
PM: Anne-Laure. Thank you for your time.
ALP: Thank you, Peter
