It's a 300-year-old family institution, but wine merchant Berry Bros. & Rudd has reaped the rewards of bringing non-family members onto the board

Hugh Sturges
The challenges of working in a family institution (compared to a public company) are different. Ninety per cent of working in a private company, particularly one as venerable as this, is a positive. The other 10 per cent is to be "dealt with". I'm given a great deal of freedom by the owners to manage the business as I see fit—one of the strengths of the family is that they've realised what they can do and what they can't do as well.

The negative is that you have to take into account family interests and family values at all times—there's a degree of diplomacy involved. I'm the fulcrum, in between the family and the employee. We have to make sure we all know what we're supposed to be doing, and suggest to the family what it should be doing. Simon and I have a modus vivendi where I run the business and he runs the board and the family.

Because we had Cutty Sark (the whisky side of the business), for so many years, it provided us with the profit and the confidence to invest. Some of our competitors in the private merchant sector are not so wealthy and have had to live a bit more hand to mouth. We've taken advantage of that.
We've been creative over the last 10 years in maintaining the traditions and the values of an old company but injecting the marketing and technological skills of a new company. We never sit still.

Beyond our passion for the business, we're very different. We make sure we keep each other informed, often over lunch and a nice glass of wine. My background's as a chartered accountant so I've got all the usual traits that go with that. I'm quite good at running a business, I'm very organised and interested in detail.

I'm quieter than Simon. He's more of a front man. He's very creative—I admire his passion. Not all his ideas are great but he does have a lot. He's constantly asking of himself and of others how we can stay ahead of the pack. He's a first-class networker.

He's fairly disorganised. In essence, we're like Morcambe and Wise without the comedy. He's the Eric and I'm the Ernie. I make sure things work and he comes up with the ideas. He embodies the values and the beliefs that have made this company a special one. And he wouldn't for one minute allow me to go off and do something which was truly commercial if it impacted on reputation.

Simon Berry
A lot of people would worry that the problem with a company as old as ours is that it would automatically become very old-fashioned. But the reason it's survived is that it's never stopped changing. The real challenge is to get the balance right between the bits you hang on to and the bits you change.

I joined the company in 1977. It wasn't as if somebody flicked a switch and it was suddenly my turn [as chairman]. I've worked with my father, with members of the Rudd family, with my cousin who was chair before me.

I think we're entrepreneurial. We also have a conservative streak in us—so we're quite good at assessing risk. That's the great thing about having two separate families involved. Every new generation is slightly rebellious; they want to test things—find out if they can push it a bit. If you've got two families doing it you don't get this enormous generational gap.

Hugh's far more numbers-oriented than I am. He's a bit of a control freak, but that's great because I'm not. If we were identical it would be a waste of a salary. He's more process driven. If I come up with a wacky idea, he'll test it each way to make sure it won't collapse in a small heap. I'm more creative and he's a balance to that. If it was just me, Lord knows what we'd be doing.

It's crucial nowadays to have a manager in a family firm who's going to run the company in an efficient and professional way. Hugh certainly does that.
There are plenty of times when Hugh, who can be stubborn, digs his heels in and says, "no I don't think that's right". But we both try and explain what is in our mind. Very often, coming at problems in different directions, we do see different aspects. We have respect for each other's input.

Hugh is very honest. He's got a clear-sighted way of looking at situations and that works with figures as well as people. He has a great ability to tell the staff the truth, to present the situation as it is, which is great if we're going through good times or bad times.