Before I joined Flint Wines, I ran the fine wine merchant Lay & Wheeler for seven years. It was not easy to turn a loss-making business with less than £10m in revenue into a profitable one with double digit growth. It took our whole team, and we worked very hard.
So at the end of every financial year, we threw a party. At that party, we gave out awards. Each year, they had a different theme.
One year, we chose candy bars - a colleague who was gracious with his time won ‘Terry’s Chocolate’ - always something to share. Another year, we chose wines - a colleague who brightened our mornings won ‘Sparkling Saumur’ - the wine to enjoy at brunch, full of bubbly enthusiasm.
But my favourite was the year we chose seed packets. When our team awarded me the ‘Carrot,’ for helping us to see in the dark, it became a mantra I have come to live by.
Katy Keating has become one of the most inspiring and important leaders in the wine industry. Truli Photo
Whether nutritional fact or fiction, the idea of the carrot aiding us to see in the dark persists.
It’s also a powerful metaphor for leadership, that leaders help others see when the path is unclear, or when times are tough.
Effective leadership
In an industry rife in herd mentality, accelerated by social media and compounded by trading headwinds, there’s never been a better time to eat our carrots than today.
Leadership means seeing what isn’t or hasn’t been done, and seeing it through.
For example, when I joined Flint in November 2023, our team had grown from 14 pre-pandemic to over 30, but our office, at a cozy 159 square meters, had not. There was a plan to lease additional space blocks away, costly in rent and in culture capital to run two sites.
But together with our leadership team we saw a different way: to renovate.
We didn’t get tempted by the allure of a shiny new space and we didn’t shy from the burden of a major infrastructure project whilst doing our day jobs. The outcome was the best for Flint: we kept our office footprint (and rent) low and our home (and commutes) in Kennington, while making our workspace best in class, not just fit for purpose.
Seeing in the dark is also about taking short term risks for the right long term reasons.
When I joined contemporaries told me they had heard of Flint, our trade-facing arm, but not our then-private client arm, Stannary. Building two brands as one company was a tax on our market presence, but also disruptive to consolidate. However, for the long term, it was the right thing to do, so we took a deep breath, we took the risk, and we did away with the Stannary name.
Again, the outcome was right one for us: we now look like the one team we felt like, and we can put all our efforts into building one united company.
We can all be leaders
Creating and driving culture where everyone in a company's team feels like they can make a difference is key to Katy Keating's leadership style. Truli Photo.
The best thing about leadership is that it can come from anyone.
I recently interviewed a woman who hadn’t led a company. She hadn’t even led a team. What she had done was work at a popular establishment known for wine, but with a culture of pretence around wine, where newcomers were made to feel silly for asking questions.
She didn’t complain and she didn’t quit. Instead, she sought a place at their next site and led the charge for a wine culture of inclusivity. She saw what wasn’t, and she made it how it could be.
Indeed, leadership is seeing how things should be, not how they are.
That’s where we all in the industry come in.
At present, the market is tough, and the politically-inflicted impacts of Brexit, duty increases and extended producer responsibilities (EPR) haven’t helped.
However, intentional leadership promotes positive thinking, which drives positives results.
Markets are built on confidence, and when we’re collectively confident, we help each other to see in the dark.
It’s easy to get caught up in the doom and gloom, with ’24 Bordeaux en primeur not working and the persistently weak secondary market. We humans are hardwired to focus more on the bad than the good. It takes conscious effort to do the opposite.
At Flint, we’re seeing green shoots in the market - from younger generations flocking to masterclasses for wines from lesser-known regions like Mercurey and Santorini, to soaring demand for rosé this summer (our sales are the highest in all our 19 years of trading).
Trying “the new”
Katy Keating with her fellow directors at Flint Wines - Jason Haynes, Sam Clarke and Gearoid Devaney MS
We’re not throwing our tools down, we’re throwing our efforts into trying the new - signing new suppliers, developing new partnerships, forging relationships with new media, and everything else we can think of.
London has always been the world’s fine wine capital, and it will take a lot more than one cyclical downturn to change this.
One of the wine industry leaders I most admire is Mathieu Chadronnier, chief executive of the Bordeaux negotiant CVBG. He gave a speech at a dinner last year which stuck with me. To paraphrase, he urged that we have a duty to remain optimistic in these more difficult times and to remain focused on the long term.
We can all do this. Today, tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.
And as Mathieu wisely puts it, it’s also important to remember that wine is more than just a beverage, it’s a culture. One that’s been around since Roman times, and which will long continue.
They ate carrots then, and so should we.
* You can find our more about Flint Wines here.
