Italian Holding Company Buys Jascots Assets to Enter Britain’s Hospitality Wine Market

An Italian holding company has agreed to buy the commercial assets of Jascots Wine Merchants, a British wine distributor with £10 million in revenue in 2025, in a deal that gives the buyer a direct route into the United Kingdom’s hospitality wine market.

The buyer, Compagnia del Gusto Holding, is acquiring the London-based merchant from Freixenet Copestick, the British subsidiary of Henkell Freixenet. The companies said the transaction also includes Jascots’ administrative and sales teams. The financial closing is scheduled for October 2026. The purchase price was not disclosed.

The deal gives Compagnia del Gusto Holding, known as CDGH, its first direct foothold in the British market. Jascots supplies wine to restaurants, hotels and bars, making it a ready-made distribution platform for the Italian group as it seeks to place more premium Italian wines in one of Europe’s most important imported wine markets.

Freixenet Copestick said the sale fits a broader effort by Henkell Freixenet to focus on its core business. In comments reported by Global Drinks Intel, the company said the agreement “reflects our strategic focus on our core business” and added that it would continue to work closely with CDGH after the sale.

The two sides also signed a strategic partnership alongside the sale. Under that arrangement, CDGH is expected to continue using Freixenet Copestick’s distribution network for the time being, while customers will continue trading with the Jascots name. That structure is meant to preserve continuity for producers and hospitality buyers as ownership changes hands.

Jascots was founded in 1986 and has built its reputation in Britain’s on-trade wine business, the industry term for wine sold through restaurants, hotels and similar venues rather than retail stores. Freixenet Copestick bought the company in 2020. Since then, Jascots has remained a specialist supplier to the hospitality trade, with a portfolio that includes producers such as Bolney Wine Estate, Champagne Alfred Gratien and Schloss Johannisberg, according to the companies and trade reports.

For CDGH, the attraction is clear. Instead of building a British sales network from scratch, the company is taking over an established operator with existing accounts, a sales force and market knowledge. The move also fits a wider pattern in the wine business, where producers and holding groups are seeking tighter control over routes to market, especially in mature import markets where premium positioning matters as much as volume.

Ettore Nicoletto, chief executive of Compagnia del Gusto Holding, described the purchase as a key step in the group’s international expansion. In a statement cited by trade publications including WineCouture, he said the United Kingdom is a strategic market for high-end Italian wines and that Jascots brings “a solid distribution platform, a highly experienced team and a deep knowledge of the on-trade channel.”

That strategy matters because the British market remains a major showcase for imported wine. Even with pressure on restaurant spending and ongoing cost increases across hospitality, the U.K. still holds influence for global producers trying to build premium brands. A strong position in British restaurants and hotels can help shape visibility with buyers, sommeliers and consumers beyond the country itself.

Freixenet Copestick and Henkell Freixenet are framing the sale as a portfolio decision rather than a retreat from the market. Damian Clarke, managing director of Freixenet Copestick and chief operating officer of Henkell Freixenet, said the company was proud of what had been achieved with Jascots since 2020 and that the new partnership would provide continuity and new development opportunities for the team and customers.

The company has also addressed questions about staffing. A Henkell Freixenet spokesperson said employees whose roles are dedicated to the Jascots business will move to the new company. The spokesperson added that the process would be handled with a focus on continuity and responsible support for staff. No layoffs were announced.

The transaction arrives at a time of wider change around Henkell Freixenet’s assets. In June, reports emerged that Maison Pommery & Associates had entered formal talks with Henkell Freixenet that could lead to a majority stake sale involving Henkell International, though that process is separate from the Jascots transaction. Against that backdrop, the sale of a British wine merchant looks consistent with a group narrowing its focus around core operations.

For Compagnia del Gusto Holding, the Jascots acquisition also appears to serve a broader ambition than wine alone. The holding company has interests across food, seafood and wine, and trade reports say it plans to use Jascots’ network to help expand both Italian wines and selected food products in Britain. That could give the group a wider commercial base in a market where restaurant buyers often source across several premium categories.

The deal does not come with a public benchmark against Jascots’ prior-year performance. The companies disclosed that Jascots generated £10 million in revenue in 2025, but no comparison with 2024 has been published. Without that context, it is difficult to measure recent growth or contraction at the business. The absence of a disclosed price also leaves open the question of how the market valued a specialist distributor serving the British hospitality sector.

Still, the commercial logic of the acquisition is straightforward. CDGH gains immediate access to a recognized British distributor and its customer relationships. Henkell Freixenet sheds a noncore asset while keeping a commercial link through its partnership with the buyer. And Jascots, rather than being folded away, is set to continue operating under its existing name as the new owner tries to use its platform to bring more Italian labels into the U.K. on-trade.