‘Beer break at 12’: BBR marks 50 years in Basingstoke

UK fine wine merchant Berry Bros & Rudd is marking 50 years since it opened its warehouse and bottling line in Basingstoke, leading one worker to recall the rather different pace of life back then.

In 1967 the former chairman of the company, Christopher Berry Green, opened the site in Basingstoke as part of his efforts to expand and modernise the merchant’s business; which would have been rather difficult in the genteel ramble of London’s St James’s.

An office was added two years later and today the site has two bonded warehouses containing around nine million bottles, sales and marketing offices, tasting rooms and a wine shop.

Located some 50 miles west of London in Hampshire, the new site allowed BBR to greatly expand its bottling operations – this being an age when many wines were still bottled by merchants not at the wineries themselves.

Winemaker Sam Weaver, who worked at the bottling line in 1978 and today produces wine for BBR’s New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, fondly remembers the rather more relaxed pace of the working day at the plant.

He recalls: “The work day had a rhythm to it: start work at 8am, tea break at 10am, beer break at 12 noon, lunch at 12.30, tea break at 3pm, beer break at 4pm and home at 5pm.

“Berry Bros & Rudd were generous and supplied a keg of beer for the cellar workers to enjoy… [back then] the world was a very different place.”

Chairman Simon Berry said: “We are so pleased that we can celebrate our 50-year-anniversary in Basingstoke. The warehouse has been a huge success and has enabled Berry Bros. & Rudd to evolve with the times.

“Even more importantly, we have been able to deliver exceptional service and storage to our customers, which has always been and continues to be the number one priority of our business.”