Rémy Cointreau, the premium French spirits company known for its iconic spirits brand, Rémy Martin, in partnership with the founder and Publisher of Genevieve Magazine, Betty Irabor, has announced the launch of the Cointreau Creative Crew in Nigeria.

The Cointreau Creative Crew is a philanthropic programme whose aim is to help women develop their freedom and expression by encouraging them to strive to make their dreams a reality. It is to be achieved through the global Cointreau Creative Crew campaign, which encourages individuals to ‘dream, dare, create’. It was launched last year in the UK and will give an entrepreneur a chance to receive a grant of €20,000 to pursue their creative project. Although the campaign is primarily targeted at women, it is also open to men.

Alfred Cointreau, Heritage Manager and great grandson (sixth generation of the family) of Founder Edouard Cointreau stated that “Edouard strived to create Cointreau for women when it was rare for women to have jobs, when they could not vote and when alcohol was only really drank by men. He wanted to be the first to speak to women through a glass.

“It is for this reason that Cointreau sought to partner with Betty Irabor to be at the helm of the Cointreau Creative Crew in Nigeria as the Creative Curator, as she is the embodiment of the Cointreau brand philosophy and lifestyle. The Cointreau Creative Crew consists of a grand jury and committee collectively headed by Betty Irabor. Also on the grand jury are Lami Tumaka (Deputy Director of NIMASA) and Barbara Lawrence (Chief Executive Officer of Insolitus Nigeria). The jury are tasked with the responsibility of promoting and encouraging all women to work towards actualising their dreams as espoused by the Dream-Dare-Create initiative.”

Alfred Cointreau, Heritage Manager and great grandson – sixth generation of the family of Founder Edouard Cointreau

L -R: Betty Irabor (Founder and Publisher, Genevieve Magazine and Creative Curator, Cointreau Creative Crew), Alfred Cointreau (Heritage Manager and great grandson – sixth generation of the family of Founder Edouard Cointreau), Antoinette Drumm (Zone Director Africa & ME, Remy Cointreau Group) and Valentine Mathieu (Cointreau Brand Manager, EMEA)

The Zonal Director, Africa and Med ME, Rémy Cointreau Group companies Mrs. Antoinette Drumm, said: “We are pleased to partner with Betty Irabor as the Creative Curator of the Cointreau Creative Crew. It’s very exciting to launch the initiative in Nigeria as the global campaign has only launched in the UK with Laetitia Casta.

During the master-class which followed right after the press conference, Alfred Cointreau spoke about the rich heritage of the brand; “We are the original triple sec with a 150-year tradition behind us; the distillery was set up in 1849 and from the traditional recipe to the iconic bottle shape, nothing has changed over the years; even though we do introduce limited edition packaging from time to time.” He also emphasized the importance of educating consumers about Cointreau; “Consumers today want to drink less, but drink better, and we want to show them they can do this with Cointreau. We will be working very closely with bartenders to show and teach them about the brand, the heritage, because that’s how we are going to get the message across to consumers.”

Alfred Cointreau, Heritage Manager and great grandson – sixth generation of the family of Founder Edouard Cointreau

Charles Alexander, Alfred Cointreau and Thibault Robert