Bottoms up, not bottom line, says Taittinger CEO

PARIS (Reuters) - French champagne maker Taittinger cares more about providing customers consistent pleasure rather than the group's bottom or top line, the head of the company said.

"I am a happiness producer. Figures do not interest me," Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger told the Reuters Global Luxury Summit in Paris.

Taittinger champagne sales could fall as much as 20 percent this year, he said, adding that "laid-off bankers do not feel like having champagne these days."

But Taittinger was not worried about the decline as sales would probably rebound next year and the industry had just enjoyed its three best years in history.

Still, it would cut investments and, for the first time in six years, would not raise prices, Taittinger said.

Taittinger, whose office sits above 1,000 year-old cellars near Reims cathedral in France's Champagne region, said he was a wine grower rather than a businessman such as Bernard Arnault, head of LVMH (LVMH.PA), the world's biggest luxury group and owner of Moet & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot champagne.

"I will never be a businessman like Bernard Arnault or (PPR (PRTP.PA) head) Francois Pinault and I don't want to be like that," Taittinger said, adding that he drew his inspiration from looking at the statue of a smiling angel on the cathedral.

"This angel inspires me 10 times more than any businessman in the world," Taittinger said. "I am not an industrial man."

FAMILY STRUGGLE

Taittinger runs the champagne house after a long struggle to buy it back from U.S. private equity firm Starwood Capital for 660 million euros ($915.6 million) in 2006, including 70 million euros of debt.

The management buy-out, backed by the local Champagne unit of Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA), allowed the Taittinger family progressively to build up its stake. It now owns 42 percent of the company, with an option to raise this to 55 percent.

Credit Agricole owns about 20 percent of Taittinger and family friends own the balance.

The company founded Domaine Carneros in 1988 in California in association with its American distributor Kobrand Corp, a business that makes sparkling wine, of which it owns 50 percent.

Taittinger, who has a son and a daughter working in the business, said he was still warding off potential buyers.

"If I wanted to sell the business, I know I could find 50 buyers as I get calls almost every month of people asking if I want to sell," he said.

Taittinger owns 289 hectares of vineyards in Champagne, supplying it with 45 percent of the grapes it uses. It buys the rest from other Champagne wine growers. It exports 70 percent of production. The UK is its top market, followed by the U.S., Germany and Spain.

Taittinger said the company had no plans to buy land or more wine to increase production. This year, it would make 6 million bottles, down from 6.5 million last year to keep quality high.

"For us, volume is not everything," he said. "If we wanted, we could produce 20 million bottles of champagne but that is not what we want to do."

Taittinger made an operating profit of 32.3 million euros on revenue of 109 million in 2007 and an operating profit of 34 million on turnover of 108 million in 2008.

Taittinger retail prices in France range from 32 euros for its Brut Reserve to 140 euros for its Comtes de Champagne, which uses only the Chardonnay grape.

Overall, champagne sales fell 4.8 percent by volume in 2008 to 322 million bottles, due largely to flagging demand in champagne's two biggest export markets. This compared to 338 million in 2007 and 321 million in 2006.

(Editing by Rupert Winchester)

($1=.7208 Euro)