Cork Talk with Adam Brett Smith

There

isn't.

I mean, Corny Barrow isn't the oldest wine merchant in London.

I'm guessing that would probably be Berry Brothers, but it was founded in 1780, I mean, just before the French Revolution.

How much do you know about the founders and the early years, knowing you quite a bit? I mean, quite a bit.

I

mean, Edward Blanc Cornyn was the founder in 78.

He didn't become Cornyn Barrett until about 60 years later when one of the cousins came in by the name of Barrett.

But I think the thing that amazes me more than anything else about the timing of that was that nine years after the company was founded, its single biggest source of supply dried up for almost a generation.

Which is France.

Which is France as a result of the revolution.

And so that must have been, you know, we talk about COVID, we talk about recession, we talk about trading difficulties, but really I cannot imagine anything more terrifying than that uh and and and having to make huge changes which is probably where spain came in

from the start pretty much or 10 years in

yeah yeah uh so it it must have been an amazing time but also an amazing time to live because if you were born uh in 1780 and if you were lucky you might live sort of i don't know 1850 be incredible political upheaval social upheaval uh the advent of steam agricultural reform i mean incredible time incredible time

yeah yeah i think you think you're right i mean you've been the company with the company most of your working life as junior salesman as we heard uh sales manager sales director and since 88 managing director um I just wonder how it's changed in the 45 years that you've been there and also how you've shaped it since 88.

What have you done? How have you put the Adam Brettsmith stamp on it? I

think the

biggest

change was to move away from being a general wine merchant offering a sort of sweet shop of wines shared with a large number of competitors.

to focusing on what you believe to be the best in any particular area and then being incredibly selfish and wanting to represent it exclusively.

So

in short, we hate sharing with the trade, but we love sharing with customers.

So that's probably, that was culturally the biggest change and everyone said we were completely bombing and because you take on a lot of risk and the relationships become significantly nasty or difficult or both.

And then you've got to fulfill your obligations by both your suppliers and your customers.

And reconciling that is sometimes very, very difficult.