national audience Corporate governance is fundamental to explaining the financial performance of companies. The general question raised in the chapter therefore follows from that twofold finding, both theoretical and empirical. What is the impact of changes in the capital structure and governance on the financial performance of French wine companies? The analyses and typologies presented show that there are many commonalities between trading companies and cooperatives. Despite great heterogeneity, the companies studied are, on average, characterised by high capital intensity, poor financial performance and a relatively fragile financial structure: the ‘determinism’ of the profession, the sector and the market is very resonant, although significant differences may emerge here or there. The good performance of some cooperatives suggests that governance such as ‘collective heritage’ would generate more value than ‘collective tool’ governance, particularly in terms of their self-financing and thus investment capacity. With the exception of a few livestock traders managing their businesses at best in high-profile regions, the overall profitability (of the AC) remains at low levels, but the return on committed equity can be considered satisfactory, due to a limited capitalisation of most of the identified companies. By contrast, the added value of the largest trading companies or cooperatives is very low and cannot lead to a satisfactory value creation for shareholders/owners or members.