Corporate entity
Ricard is a French public company that was founded in 1932 in Marseille by Paul Ricard to sell his Ricard drink. In 1962, the Ricard business was floated on the Paris Stock Exchange.[7]
In 1968, Ricard retired from his daily running of the Ricard company, as a result of a fit of temper with state controls (said to be due to a combination of his famous bad-temper and his detestation of the power of the French state and bureaucracy).[5] Paul Ricard's son, Patrick Ricard, inherited Ricard as the company's single product, sold almost entirely in France.[7] Patrick Ricard led the drink and the company's international expansion, becoming managing director in 1972.[14]
In 1975, the companies of Ricard and Pernod Fils, the two largest French aniseed aperitif producers and fierce competitors,[11] merged creating the Pernod Ricard group, which currently owns the Ricard company.[12] After the merger, in 1978, Patrick Ricard became the CEO of the Pernod Ricard group which he held until his death on 17 August 2012.[7][15] Today Pernod-Ricard is the second-largest drinks business in the world, with only 10% of its sales in France and one of the widest product ranges in the industry, including table wines, champagnes, scotches, cognacs, gins, and vodkas.[16]
Currently, the Ricard firm is still based in Marseille, however, the production of Ricard today takes place in Bessan, with the blending and bottling also taking place in Bordeaux and Lille.[1] The Ricard Company has two main functions:
- Producing the Ricard, Pacific and Lillet brands in order to commercialize them in France and export them all over the world, through the Pernod Ricard's distribution subsidiaries.
- Commercializing some products from the Pernod Ricard group in France (Clan Campbell, Chivas Regal, Jameson, Absolut, Malibu, and Perrier Jouet).
