A Legacy of Fine Wine and Innovation: 7 Lessons from Berry Bros. & Rudd

Lizzy Rudd, Chair of Berry Bros. & Rudd, explains how to keep a company relevant after three centuries.

Elizabeth (Lizzy) Rudd is the Chair of Berry Bros. & Rudd, Britain’s oldest wine merchant.

Founded in 1698 at number 3 St James street in London, the company still occupies the same address 327 years later . But today, it offers more than 1,500 SKUs and stores more than 1.5 million cases of wine in a state-of-the-art warehouse in Hampshire. They also have offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore, and sell to customers in more than 100 countries. 

Maintaining a family business for a mere two generations is difficult enough, much less for more than three centuries. In a recent conversation with Areni, Rudd explained how the firm does it.

“At times it feels like a huge responsibility to the past and future generations of my family and beyond, but I prefer to think of it as a gift and a privilege to have the opportunity to contribute and nurture something so special,” she said.

Here are 7 insights from that conversation and the lessons the wine world can benefit from:

Additional Resources:

• Thriving Through Uncertainties: In Conversation with Lizzy Rudd
• Rethinking Education: Shaping the Future of the Wine Trade
• Women’s Wealth Is Soaring and So Is Their Taste for Fine Wine
• It’s Time to Go Where the New Consumers Are Congregating
• The Equation of Dreams: What Makes a Luxury Brand Desirable?