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Chanoine Frères director killed in collision
Philippe Fémel, the director of Champagne house Chanoine Frères, was killed yesterday afternoon in Reims after being hit by a car.
Philippe Fémel, the director of Champagne house Chanoine Frères, was killed yesterday afternoon after being hit by a car.
Fémel was struck by the vehicle as he crossed the road outside his home on the Rue Jacquart in Reims. Despite the efforts of paramedics he was declared dead at the scene. He was 66.
The driver, described only as being his 20s, fled the site of the accident but later handed himself into the police and is now in custody and facing charges of aggravated manslaughter.
Fémel was a well-known figure in Champagne and the managing director of Champagne Chanoine Frères and Tsarine, two labels that are part of the Lanson-BCC group.
Originally from Normandy, Fémel worked at Vittel and then Marie Brizard before joining Maison Chanoine Frères in 1998.
Bruno Paillard, CEO of Lanson-BCC and Franck Coste, CEO of Chanoine Frères, said in a joint statement: “In this tragic situation, all the employees of Maison Chanoine, his colleagues and friends of the Lanson-BCC Board of Directors, the families Paillard, Baijot and Boizel, all truly shocked, wish to extend their deepest sympathy to his daughter.
“Philippe Fémel was a man of conviction, with a strong temperament, appreciated by everyone, deeply involved with his family and in his work, as well as in the Saint-André parish of Reims.”
Widowed in 2016, Fémel is survived by his only daughter, Ariane.