Managing Director
People often ask me why I don't have my name over the door alongside Chris's since we are both equal shareholders in CPW. The simple answer is that when I joined up with Chris at the tender age of 23, a year after he had started the company, I was not sure if the wine trade would be right for me and it would have been crazy to change the name of the company if I had decided to leave a year or two down the line. I did, as it turned out, enjoy the business very much but, having always preferred to stay out of the limelight, it has always seemed sensible to leave things as they were in this regard. Some of our oldest and most long-established customers will remember the time when Chris and I used to alternate as Chairman - much to their amusement.
Unlike Chris, I had no prior experience of the wine trade, having studied German and Swedish at University College London, and the first couple of years were very much a baptism of fire. Like many of our customers today I knew what I liked - it is just that, over the years, I have learned to like more and to appreciate the subtle differences in wines more.
When Chris and I started out interest rates were at 15% and we were in a recession but we were young, slightly daft but above all enthusiastic. Chris had, at the absurdly young age of 22, somehow blagged his way into being appointed agent for Georges Duboeuf in the South-West. This proved to be an extremely clever move which gave us greater credibility than we perhaps deserved at such a young age; it certainly opened many doors for us in the early days of the company. The first year at CPW Ltd. saw Chris and I both concentrating on sales and our success at trebling our turnover was only matched by the shock at the catastrophic losses we made! It was so bad that I was asked to attend an interview with HM Inspector of Taxes in Exeter as I think he did not believe that any business could be so badly run. After interviewing me he soon realised that it obviously could!
A radical restructuring was called for so Chris assumed the role of concentrating entirely on sales whereas I, along with a secretary, would look after everything from the finances, order taking, order collections, warehousing as well as driving the van to deliver the orders that Chris was getting from his sales drive. We both continued to buy together. The partnership that Chris and I share of sales and marketing on the one hand and finance and administration on the other has, in my opinion, underpinned the solid performance of our company over what will soon be 30 years. This partnership is also unique in that Chris and I have been friends since the age of 13 - we went to Eastbourne College together and then, coincidentally, University College London. We are still friends and, together with our mutual friend Bob Dawes who occasionally helps down a bottle or two, a plaque with our names still hangs over our office door - the same plaque used to hang on our school study door.
We both recognise that Christopher Piper Wines Ltd. would not be a fraction of the company it is without the support and commitment of our many staff. Every single person in CPW, from fellow directors to the delivery team, contributes to the success of our company and it is a tribute to the style of CPW's working environment that many staff have been with us since the very early days. I am delighted to see that many who seem to join us also seem reluctant to leave.
So in the end I did stay on and I can honestly say that I have been very lucky. Lucky to work with my friend Chris, to have the opportunity to taste and select new and different products with every new vintage, to learn more and more and realise I know less and less but still to be able to celebrate the new and appreciate the old in wine and in the people who make it. Most of all I appreciate the human aspects of wine - from the production of it, through the purchasing of it, through the delivery of it to the consumption of it. Every bottle we open has the promise of a celebration and, although it does not always deliver, it often does - now there are not too many careers I can think of that can make that boast. Santé!
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