Pierre Jesus Sebastian Castel (born 17 October 1926) is a French billionaire businessman, best known as the founder of the Castel Group, one of Europe's largest wine producers and a major player in the global beverages industry. Under his leadership, the group expanded from a family-owned Bordeaux wine business into an international conglomerate active in wine, beer, and soft drinks, with a particularly strong presence in Africa and Europe.
Early life
Pierre Castel was born Jesus Sebastian Castel[1] on 17 October 1926 in Berson, near Bordeaux.[2] He was the sixth of nine children in a family of Spanish agricultural workers who had emigrated to France in 1914. His parents settled in the vineyards of Bourg-sur-Gironde, where Castel began working at the age of twelve.[2]
In 1947, at the age of nineteen, he established a small wine trading business that supplied local grocers and wine merchants in the Bordeaux region. In 1949, he and his eight siblings formally founded Castel Frères, which later became the Castel Group