How Sturges has steered BBR

A numbers man by trade, Berry Bros & Rudd’s MD Hugh Sturges has confidently and adeptly steered the wine – and increasingly spirits – retailer into becoming the modern and successful operation it is today.

In our in-depth interview, Hugh Sturges speaks to Patrick Schmitt about how he has rung in the changes at the award-winning merchant.

If you want to know what’s going to become fashionable in the world of clothing, property, or music then monitor where the pink pound is being spent. If you’re not convinced, just consider how Georgian south coast town Brighton turned from shabby to sought-after as soon as the gay community moved in.

But who does one look to in wine? Is there a signal for future change? A leader? Trailblazer? Although it may seem unlikely – and the 300-year-old merchant might be surprised at the comparison – Berry Bros & Rudd could make a credible claim to such pioneering behaviour.

The company led the field for several years with its website: it was one of the first in alcoholic drinks to identify the power of the online medium and invest significantly in it.

It was also innovative in its duty-free presence, not forgetting its foray into Hong Kong with a wine club and website back in 1999, followed by its first shop there seven years ago.

Then came its embrace of social marketing tools Twitter and Facebook, and more recently, its operation in Japan, and now appointment of an Indian fine wine salesman – and second shop in Hong Kong.

In each situation the business has been at the forefront, providing an early guide to future trends.

Supporting, or rather increasingly driving, the family-owned company’s entrepreneurial spirit, is helmsman Hugh Sturges.

His very appointment points at Berrys’ surprising and savvy approach. Sturges, a former accountant, jokes he joined the company in 2001 as finance director because he was the “only candidate who didn’t say he was interested in wine”.

Five years later and he became managing director, a credit to his hard work, diplomacy – he currently lunches weekly with majority shareholder and octogenarian John Rudd – as well as a skill with numbers.

The latter ability was key because, as Sturges explains, it was complementary: while he praises company chairman Simon Berry for his flair, he’s not so generous about his numeracy.

“I’m a numbers man at heart and it’s something that the family need,” he begins, before explaining, “In some way the family has been too cautious historically but that may just be because they have not had the confidence from a numbers point of view.”

Sturges on the other hand, now almost 10 years at the company, has not only given the family more courage to invest, but earned his own freedom to, as he says, “take intelligent risk on behalf of the company”.

In the spirit

This with, he adds, “the ambition to grow it to a reasonably significant scale over the next decade or so”.

How? Interestingly, an hour-long discussion with Sturges is almost evenly split between the potential in spirits as well as wine. And when asked about the company’s strategy, he begins with spirits, and above all, the sale of Cutty Sark whisky – a brand with a £65 million turnover.

“Great brand though it was, and still is, it’s not really our bag because with a mainstream spirit you are facing the big boys head on and, at the end of the day, there is only going to be one winner,” he explains, referring to the likes of rivals Diageo and Pernod Ricard.

Letting go of the famous label was “not an easy decision” he says, but “the right one in the end”.

It is, in fact, part of a long-term plan for Berry Bros to build a portfolio of premium spirits brands “which are more akin to our reputation in wine”.

“We are trying to bring the two sides of the business closer together in terms of values and we think there is quite a lot of room for a specialist, high-quality, niche, family-owned spirits company as well.”

To read the full interview with Sturges, see the July issue of the drinks business.

Patrick Schmitt, 02.08.2010