The former professional football player, who now owns vineyards in Condrieu (Rhône), then cellar and restaurant owner in Dijon (*), continues to amaze in his developments with an original digital offer for wine professionals. But not only. Éric Carrière has a surprising entrepreneurial and human dimension. Since the containment, sales activity, carried out online, has increased by 50%, but with an average ticket lower than usual.
Met while still officiating as a midfielder at Dijon Football Côte-d’Or (DFCO), Éric Carrière remains the same man a decade later: empathetic, attentive, modest, careful and also lucid. At the head of Caves Carrière in Dijon, the wine sales company he founded in 2010, he manages it like the old number 10 he was, with accuracy and a good distribution of roles.
Because in this 46-year-old man, whose retraining is an example to follow, no question of blazing. If he made a good living as a sportsman (**) clarifying that this is nothing compared to the fees paid today in the small world of football, there was no question for him to live on his annuities and other investments.
The wine universe has already attracted this native of Foix (Ariège) for a long time, for having bought in 2007 1.6 hectares of vines in Condrieu and Côte-Rôtie (Rhône Valley), alongside Stéphane Ogier (read our box), a local winegrower. Having become a consultant and commentator on Canal + – which he always is -, Éric Carrière founded alone in 2010 Caves Carrière in Dijon – in his garage – and played with his relationships.
A storage capacity of 250,000 bottles
“The salesperson is not my cup of tea, however, so I joined in 2013 with Nicolas Creuzot, who is a pro. “ The beginnings are a bit difficult for the former league 1 player who does not put forward his image, but wants to be recognized in his new profession. Little by little, the business is gaining momentum and the dependencies of the home quickly become cramped in activity.
Eric Carrière and Stéphane Ogier met when the first played at Olympique Lyonnais (OL). We were in the early 2000s and the two men gradually sympathized over many meetings. ” He came to me to give gifts and wanted to know more about wine.
Then, every time we met, he asked a lot of questions because he likes to learn what interests him Remembers Stéphane Ogier. Also, when in 2007, the opportunity arose to acquire a 1.6 hectare vineyard, including 1.2 ha in the Condrieu appellation and 4 ares in the Côte-Rôtie, Eric Carrière did not hesitate and joined his new friend in a common society.
Stéphane Ogier joined the family estate in 1997 and now operates 40 hectares of vines, 13 of which are cot-roasted, his great specialty.
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At the end of 2016, the wine merchant invested € 1 million, then reinjected € 1.2 million last year to have a sales and storage site in the area of the former wholesale market, near the Cap Nord activity zone, in its image: simple, tasteful and welcoming. It must be said that Caves Carrières has grown to a certain extent and in 2018 borders on € 11 million in turnover with a team of 13 employees, including 4 recruited in one year.
The company has a storage capacity of 250,000 bottles, works with 500 domains, offers 3,000 references, does not hesitate to buy private cellars and sells online with withdrawal at the store. However, this success remains discreet. “I move forward, with prudence and lucidity”, confesses Éric Carrière.
Digital store sales have increased 50% since containment
Here we find the former playmaker in his serious style: no outburst, a thoughtful side – he was one of the first footballers to benefit from a therapist – see a tad intellectual. As proof, you have to listen to it punctuate its analyzes of matches on Canal + with a pedagogue dimension.
“If I confessed that I would have liked to be a math teacher …” Also note that gifted for studies, he holds the diploma of general manager of a professional sports club, dropped out at the same time as a certain Zinedine Zidane.
This character trait is found in the two digital applications that he has just launched via the company Digital & Wine. The first is an interactive aid to tasting and presenting wines.
Called proVINUM, it allows you to discover the vineyard of the wines in question, their plots, the terroir, know the characteristics supporting a file, know when to drink them, how to keep them, consult the tasting notes, food pairings / wines…
The second is called GeoVINUM and integrates the mapping of all the vineyards of the world, according to the official data of each country, with details on the vineyards, climatology … The rendering is amazing in terms of precision and visual quality. The bottles put online rotate 360 °, as do the images of the vines concerned.
At the time of confinement, these tools prove to be precious because they are marketed online. Just like wines with the digital store, whose activity has increased by 50% since mid-March, but with an average ticket lower than usual, consumers want more wines to drink than to age.
“We turn taking all health precautions in teams of four in the morning, then five afterwards”, indicates the leader. When asked what he would like tomorrow after the pandemic, the answer fell like a knife: “Too many things, but above all that people stop staging themselves for a yes, for a no. “
(*) Éric Carrière has been a shareholder since 2013 in Bistrot des Halles, a restaurant in Dijon.
(**) Player in particular in Nantes, Lyon and Lens, where he built up a nice track record, winning the French championship four seasons in a row (from 2001 to 2004), the Coupe de France twice, the Trophy champions three times, as well as an Intertoto Cup and the 2001 Confederations Cup with the French team where he played 10 times (source Wikipedia).
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