How would you describe your style of management and what is your approach to managing and motivating people?
I would like to think that I am inclusive and encouraging as well providing a platform for people to be creative and try new things. I love innovation and the energy that new projects bring. I hate stagnation and people settling for second best.
Robin Copestick is respected as one of the most innovative and bravest business leaders in wine responsible for bringing major brands - like iHeart Wine - to the market
Hopefully I manage and motivate people using these values. I try and stress that is better to try and fail than never to try at all.
How do you retain good talent?
I believe I have a good track record in retaining good talent. The key is to offer a competitive and motivating remuneration package, to empower people and to offer a consistent and motivating career path. I am always very open to offering external courses that can help with personal/career development.
How do you deal with unmotivated ornon-performing members of your team?
What I try to do is to find out why they are unmotivated and/or not performing. I am always positive and encouraging so I try to re-motivate people as soon as possible and get them on the right track.
How has the role of business leader changed?
I think the role of business leader has changed markedly over the time that I have been in business. There is much more inclusivity and sharing of information which is very positive and helps develop a more positive company culture. Much less of a “my way or the highway” culture and much more collaboration.
Have you had business mentors in your career and what have you learnt most from them?
There are three people from whom I have taken a lot of inspiration. Juan Moreno who founded Moreno Wines, Brian McGuigan who founded McGuigan Wines and Andreas Brokemper, chief executive of Henkell Freixenet.
All three taught me very different aspects of business and leadership.
Juan was just a wonderful, inspiring man. Full of stories and passion. Always trying to help and encourage and he loved watching his company and the staff progressing. I fed off his passion and I quickly understood that to be successful you have to love what you do and pass that passion on to your team.
Brian was a whirlwind of ideas and energy but also very strategic. He had a knack of choosing the right people and empowering them. He also knew where his strengths and weaknesses were and hired the right people for the right jobs. Brian was also incredibly supportive of me when I started Copestick Murray. From Brian I learned that I had to find people to work with who could complement my strengths and I also learned the value of empowering people.
Robin Copestick with Henkell Freixenet chief executive Andreas Brokemper, centre, and Freixenet Copestick's Damian Clarke
I am still working with Andreas and he is an amazingly intelligent and creative leader. Andreas helped me to add some strategy to the energy and passion that I already had. This was incredibly valuable from 2013 to 2019 when Copestick Murray grew so quickly. What I learned from Andreas was the value of supporting your team whilst also setting targets and implementing strategies that allow your business to grow.
When Henkell first bought Copestick Murray we wanted one to one to equal three. I think by 2018 it might have equalled five or more. Andreas played a key role in this success. He gave a calmness and surety that allowed the whole of the Copestick Murray team to go ahead and be even more successful than before.
Juan, Brian and Andreas are completely different people and I learned very different lessons and skills from the three of them. But what they all share is an incredible work ethic which is something I like to think that I have emulated.
Equally I have also learned from watching leaders and colleagues who were not as inspiring as Juan, Brian and Andreas. Sometimes I think I have learned even more by knowing how not to behave and watching people who are clearly not doing things in the right way. Some of these lessons have been incredibly valuable and they are continuing.
If you have a problem in a business what are the steps you put in place to try and solve it?
I am learning to take time and not to panic or over react. It try to step back and reflect as well as support the people involved. Often problems are not as big as they seem at first. I always want to support the people involved and definitely not to find blame.
What do you admire in business and why?
Inside the drinks industry:
Robin Copestick admires the "irreverent" personality of Brewdog
The companies I most admire in drinks at the moment are Campari for its great brand building, focus and dominance in its key areas. Brewdog for its irreverence, humour, bravery and success in such a short space of time.
The two wine areas that I admire the most are Champagne and Provence. Both areas have shown how it is possible to build value and luxury products that excite people. Both areas are a template for success for the wine industry in my opinion.
Rioja is getting close to this and I truly believe that English wine, managed correctly, can become hugely successful. This is a reason why we bough The Bolney Wine Estate and I am excited to see how this acquisition progresses.
Outside drinks industry
I love learning from brands and people outside of drinks. My most memorable recent experiences are meeting two well known people and getting to know them quite well.
1. John Hegarty (the advertising executive) is both inside and outside of drinks but in the few years we worked together I loved listening to his stories and sharing ideas. John is a very entertaining, successful and inspiring man.
Darren Gough and his wife, Anna, worked with Robin Copestick to create the Care for Wild wine brand that helped raise money for rhino sanctuaries in Africa
2. I was also lucky enough to spend quite a lot of time with Darren Gough. He is also a very inspiring man. Very humble, great fun but with a fierce determination to be successful. He has a great sense of humour, amazing work ethic, is very loyal and has a wonderful interaction people from all walks of life.
Separately I was also very blessed to grow up with my mother and sister who were both very successful in different ways and different businesses. This was extremely valuable in shaping my understanding that women were just as capable of being business leaders as men. I am sure that this is one reason why I have always worked very well with women and as a result gender equality has never been an issue in the companies that I have led.
If you are interested in buying a business what are the key questions you need to ask to determine whether it is a possibility or not?
The four businesses that I have been involved in buying either approached me or came via a broker. Hence they were already on the market.
The first meetings are always about finding out if the business that is for sale will be a good fit for our business and if the people will work well with our current employees. If the answers are yes I then have the confidence to go to the next stage of the financial negotiation and due diligence.
For me it is always vital that we only add a new business to Freixenet Copestick if that business is complementary to what we are already doing.
What is it that gets you out of bed in the morning in running a business?
Robin Copestick doing what he does best - inspiring others to do the best they can as part of a leaders panel debate
I am extremely lucky that I have always enjoyed my work so getting out of bed has never been a problem. I always look forward to Mondays!
What are you doing personally to improve your skills as a business leader to keep up?
As my role changes I am very aware that I have take more of an advisory role and allow others to make decisions. This is often a challenge but I am getting better. Listen more, act less, be patient!
If you had not worked in wine/ drinks industry what would have been your dream career: business to look after?
I always wanted to be a sports journalist and I did have an article published in Wisden once. Being paid to watch England play cricket was an early dream.
Anything else to say?
We work in an amazing industry with a huge amount of great brands and fabulous people. I often hear some people being very critical of marketing in wine, how the pricing is wrong and how we don’t inspire our customers. Admittedly the criticism comes from people on the periphery of the industry who have not been successful but it is totally wrong in my opinion. We can get better, of course, but we have a lot to be proud of. The improvements that have been made in the global wine industry since 1984, when I started working for Juan Moreno, have been exponential.
We are part of both the FMCG world and the luxury world and everything in between. Grapes are normally grown in beautiful places and we go and visit these incredible places. Additionally wine makes the world a better place. What could be better? What a great job I have.
