New wine in old bottles

Lucinda Baring meets Simon Berry, chairman of a 200-year-old company that’s more modern than it looks 

Berry Bros & Rudd in St James’s Street epitomises the idea of an old-fashioned wine merchant. Outside, the façade has remained largely unchanged for centuries. Inside, the panelling, desks and uneven wooden floor transport you to an era long gone. And yet this venerable appearance belies the efficient mechanisms of a much more modern business. Other family-run wine merchants have been less successful in updating their brand. Lay & Wheeler, a 150-year-old family business very similar to Berry Bros and perhaps their closest competitor, was bought by Majestic in March, and Avery’s of Bristol, established in 1793, is now owned by Laithwaites. Earlier this month, Berry Bros itself announced it was closing its Dublin shop after ten years due to high costs.

Can Berry Bros in London survive and keep its independence? Despite the perception that a traditional family firm is incapable of competing with more progressive models, chairman Simon Berry assures me Berry Bros is going from strength to strength.