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Flint Wines appoints Lay & Wheeler boss to oversee expansion

08 June 2023 By Arabella Mileham

Flint Wines has appointed outgoing Lay & Wheeler boss Katy Keating as its new managing director as it embarks on a phase of ambitious growth, it told db.

Keating will start her new role at the UK fine wine importer later in the year where she will be responsible for the overall operations and strategic direction of Flint Wines, as well as its private customer arm, Stannary Wine.

Keating joins Flint from fine wine merchant Lay & Wheeler, having been appointed to conduct a major overhaul of the business after Naked Wines acquired Lay & Wheeler through its acquisition of parent company, Majestic Wines PLC. As well as overseeing a major reset of the business, which took it back into profit, she helmed it during the subsequent sale to a private company, seeing a “transformational” year in 2020, when sales rose by a whopping 57% to £7 million. Last year the company reported reporting revenues of £27.075 million in the 12 months to end March 2022.

The company praised Keating’s experience and expertise, saying that with her proven track record of leadership and a deep understanding of the wine industry, she would play “a vital role in steering the company towards continued growth and success” as it embarks on the “next phase of development and expansion”.

“Her extensive knowledge of market dynamics, combined with a strong focus on innovation and a people-focused approach, makes her an ideal fit for this role,” Flint Wines’ directors Jason Haynes, Sam Clarke and Gearoid Devaney MS said in a statement, adding that they had “huge respect for her talents and everything that she has achieved in her time at Lay & Wheeler”.

“We have ambitious plans for further growth over the next five years at Flint Wines and Stannary Wine and her role in helping to bring those to fruition will be crucial,” they said.

Haynes added that it was “very exciting to imagine how we could evolve and what we could achieve with someone of such evident calibre at the helm”.

“We have our best-ever team assembled in the company, lots of motivating projects in the pipeline and plenty of scope for expansion. Katy is the perfect person to bring it all together.”

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