Governance has been heavily influenced
by what family members have learnt through Harvard’s acclaimed Families in Business course—which is where Simon Berry got the idea for compulsory work experience for up- and-coming family members. “We’re all quite headstrong but I’d say we
get on incredibly well and the direction of the business is something we’re all aligned on. “That’s not to say we always agree. Some of
the best decisions come from healthy debate.” Despite his mother’s name being synonymous
with the British wine scene, Willis grew up knowing little about the business, and was only exposed to relatively modest wines. Both his mother and father were occasional
drinkers and he was raised in Scotland (his father was Scottish) putting him some 10 hours’ journey from the family’s historic London headquarters. “I get asked a lot by journalists whether I
grew up drinking Latour and Lafite. I look back wistfully and think, ‘If only’,” Willis says. “Even my grandfather, who was the biggest
As the name suggests, Berry Bros & Rudd
I get asked a lot by journalists whether I grew up drinking Latour and Lafite. I look back wistfully and think, ‘If only’
is now a two-family business. The Rudds came on board in the 1920s, with the chair position tending to be filled in a Rudd-Berry- Rudd-Berry pattern ever since, though by coincidence rather than design. Elizabeth ‘Lizzy’ Rudd took over from
Simon Berry as chairman in December 2017— the second woman to hold the position in the company’s history, while her brother, Edward Rudd, acts as finance transformation director and Willis—the son of Simon’s sister—is creative director. The business also has external management through chief executive Dan Jago. “I personally think it’s true that if you have
two families you have a degree of respect that can sometimes disappear within a family group where you’re just dealing with siblings and parents and so on,” Willis says. “Whilst we get on very well and refer to
ourselves as one family, there is something about having separation between the two which keeps it more formal.”
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influence from a wine point of view, was relatively frugal when it came to his choices. He was the child of two world wars and I think that generation have the frugality that went with it… He would have a German Riesling, a Mosel or something like that, and he loved Chilean merlot, which was a screw cap.” Willis’s first memories of visiting the
company HQ were in his early teens, though he does not remember ever thinking it would be the site of his future career. When he found his talents lay in painting and design, a future at Berry Bros seemed even less pre-ordained. “I was probably the first generation where it
wasn’t just assumed that I would go in, whereas for Simon [Berry] and Edward [Rudd] I think they would have felt it was the chosen path. “I remember my grandmother on a handful
of occasions saying, wouldn’t it be nice if you did? She had a romanticised idea of travelling the world and seeing lovely vineyards.” When Willis graduated with a degree in fine
arts and English literature, his first job was at Harper’s Bazaar, a spell which saw him get to know London, and familiarised him with the art of branding—“some brands already had long illustrious histories, some wanted to look like they had long illustrious histories”.
PHOTOGRAPHY: ELENA HEATHERWICK/BERRY BROS & RUDD, JOAKIM BLOCKSTROM/BERRY BROS & RUDD
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