In 1812 a former cooper and bottler, Alphonse Pierlot, purchased two parcels of land. He willed his company to his cellar master, Eugene Laurent, who ran it with his wife, Mathilde Emilie Perrier. After Eugene Laurent died in 1887 his widow, Mathilde, took control and attached her name to the company, changing it to Veuve Laurent-Perrier (veuve means "widow").
Due to the setbacks from World War I and the imminent outbreak of World War II, the company was sold to Mary-Louise Lanson de Nonancourt in 1939. Marie-Louise invested all she could in the company, at one point mortgaging 1,000 cases of Champagne she had hidden in a wall. In 1949 her eldest son Bernard de Nonancourt became the owner of the company and made it become one of the largest family-owned Champagne houses. The de Nonancourt family still retains majority ownership of the company to this day.
Laurent-Perrier now exports to more than 120 countries and has risen to become the world's third best-selling champagne brand as of 2005, behind Moët et Chandon and Veuve Clicquot.
