Charlois

The house

The family’s line in oak starts with Jacques Charlois, a forester and stave splitter, in 1657. In 1928 Eugène Charlois set up a stave-splitting workshop at Murlin, in the Nièvre, the forest country of central France. Denis Charlois took over the family stave mill in 1969 and opened a second at the end of the 1990s. In 2005 Sylvain Charlois brought the family businesses together as a group.

From staves the group moved into barrels, and then abroad. In 2006 Denis Charlois bought Tonnellerie Berthomieu, at La Charité-sur-Loire, a cooperage whose staves all came from his mills. Groupe Nadalié, whose Médoc cooperage dates from 1902, joined in 2018. In October 2022 Blue Oak, a holding the group shared with Antigone, the investment company of Nicolas Mähler-Besse, took the majority of Oakwood Cooperage, which Brent Bowie had founded in Scotland in 2018. With 2 cognac houses the group formed joint ventures in which it holds 51%. Green Oak, with Hennessy, brought in Groupe Doreau in 2021; White Oak, with Martell, was formed in July 2023 around Nièvre Merrain, Tonnellerie Leroi and L’Atelier du Foudrier. In July 2024 Charlois bought Graf Brothers, a producer of American white oak at South Shore, in Kentucky, and in June 2026 it announced new investment in Oakwood through Oaking.

Oak Nation, the group’s parent company, is based in Paris. In March 2024 the investment firm ICG became its financial partner in place of Latour Capital, BNP Développement, Idia and SGCP. Sylvain Charlois, through his family company, Charlois & Compagnie, came to hold more than 73% of Oak Nation. What grew from the workshop of 1928 now counts 39 houses and about 1,300 people in France, Spain, Romania, Scotland and the United States, and sells in more than 60 countries.

At a glance

Kind

Cooperage group

Based in

Paris, through Oak Nation; the family base at Murlin, in the Nièvre

Founded

2005, by Sylvain Charlois; the Murlin workshop from 1928

Owner

The Charlois family, through Charlois & Compagnie, above 73% since March 2024

Direction

Sylvain Charlois, chairman; Charles de Lorgeril, chief executive, by June 2026

Brands

Tonnellerie Nadalié, Saury, Tonnellerie Mercier, Tonnellerie Marchive, Doreau, Tonnellerie Leroi, Nièvre Merrain, Oakwood Cooperage, Graf Brothers

Abroad

Spain, Romania, Scotland and the United States