ac y The word “legacy” can have have a multitude of meanings for family businesses and how people interpret it, and can often be quite personal. We asked four very different people from FBUK Member companies, that share more than 1,200 years of history, what legacy means to them.
Berry Bros. & Rudd
and monocultures promoted through the decades since the Second World War. Regenerative viticulture and agriculture is a key driver to help the world get to net zero CO 2 emissions. As His Royal Highness King Charles III says (and we are a proud holder of his Royal Warrant for which a business has to show a sustainable ethos and improvements each year), “we need to respect the living world and work in harmony with nature and the land”. The future of our planet and all species, including our own, depends on it. My proudest legacy will be passing on a business that lives by its purpose and values – that connects people to nature and the importance of how we look after the land, and how that shows up in the products that we drink and share.
can feel proud of and that creates a community for them, regardless of whether they work in it or not.
Quality wine is a nice to have – a luxury, even – but it’s not essential. However, what we really want to do is bring people together. As we move further to a digital world, to create a sense of belonging, enjoyment and conversation, being together in person, with wine and spirits as facilitators – as they have been for thousands of years – is crucial. Our ethos is about drinking less, but drinking better. The old paradigm of making money at the expense of the environment and society has changed. Although this has never been our ethos, in that we’ve always thought about service to customers and colleagues ahead of profit, when we look at the climate crisis as well as the general state of society, the responsibility for business has to be broadened. The first step of that journey for us was to do the work to become B Corp certified. I want to create awareness of the importance of our lands and the health of our soils. Viticulture that regenerates the land follows the same principles as agriculture whereby it promotes and values biodiversity of life both below and above ground, and is a far cry from the industrial agriculture I want BB&R to be a business that the world needs. But how can a wine business be something the world needs?
Lizzy Rudd Tenth generation Chair Berry Bros. & Rudd
If we think of legacy as representing the values and contributions that endure beyond one’s lifetime, in a business of our age (327 years) it’s deeply intertwined with ancestral legacy, with each generation of the Berry and Rudd family having shaped the business over their lifetimes, imparting their innovations, their wisdom and their values. At Berry Bros & Rudd we talk about having one foot in the past and one foot in the future as we steer our business forwards during these turbulent and rapidly changing times. Having one foot in the past grounds us and enables us to stay rooted and connected to our values, to what’s important and what really matters, versus taking relative risks and evolving into a business that’s resilient, thriving and ready to pass on to the next generation.
Berry Bros & Rudd spirits shop. Image: Joakim Blockstrom
For me personally, I want to pass on a business that the next generation
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