The Drinks Trader Power List 500

Every year, The Drinks Trader, “the world’s most influential publication for professionals in the global drinks trade”, publishes its rundown of the “most influential people in the global wine trade”. Ahead of its presentation at a “star-studded pre-breakfast ceremony” at the London Wine Fair, David Williams picks out some of the notable names in this year’s much-anticipated list

No 498

Henk Koopman

CEO,

Henk Koopman Wijn Logiestiek

Henk Koopman’s trademark mutton chops, pipe and fisherman’s cap, as immortalised in his company’s instantly recognisable, much-loved logo, were an even more familiar sight than normal on northern European motorways over the past year.

The jovial Belgian haulier tightened his grip on the Benelux wine logistics market with the completion of the long-drawnout acquisition of his closest competitor, Stoepker Hendriks Jaager Trucks, in early 2022.

It brought Koopman’s total fleet to more than 3,500 vehicles, all of them decked out in the company’s red-black-and-yellowpainted livery and adorned with the famous Koopman slogan below his smiling face: “Het is niet nodig om het te vinden als je het nooit kwijtraakt!” (“There’s no need to find it if you never lose it!”).

Full-year trading results published in January, showing a 33% rise in turnover, appeared to confirm the wisdom of the SHJT takeover, but recent months have proved more challenging for the company, after an ongoing police investigation into a complex corruption case known in Belgium as the “Bordeaux schandaaldozen” (“Bordeaux scandal boxes”) narrowed its focus to an unlisted warehouse belonging to Koopman in an industrial estate just outside Mechelen.

“Er is niets verloren als het niet is gevonden” (“There’s nothing lost if it hasn’t been found”) was Koopman’s sole response when quizzed by Flemish-language newspaper De Standaard in late March.

No 310 Brooke Seedbank

Vice President Wine Buying & Human Resources

Big Dwight’s Wine House

In a year in which food and drink inflation has reached well into double digits all over the developed world, US Midwest-based wine retail chain Big Dwight’s Wine House was the rare wine retailer to oversee a drop in prices – by an average of 10% between March 2022 and March 2023.

That they achieved this while simultaneously achieving a 244% rise in profits over the same period is largely down to Big Dwight’s Wine House Vice President Wine Buying & Human Resources, Brooke Seedbank, who implemented what Forbes magazine called “one of the most daringly radical retail strategies of recent years”.

The package of measures included a reduction in lines from more than 1,000 SKUs to just two, and from more than 40 suppliers to one across the 680-store estate, as well as the successful launch of the “Be one of Big Dwight’s grape heroes” staff programme, which offered employees a 0.00001% stake in the company’s newly planted 1.2-acre Michigan vineyard in exchange for “an upward adjustment” to their working hours, a complete renouncement of union representation, and a “cost-based accelerated deceleration” of their healthcare, pension, dental, childcare, travel subsidies and staff discount plans.

No 126 Guy Foppe Champagne Foppe et Fils

Guy Foppe’s family-owned business may not be the largest or best-known Champagne house. But, thanks to the man

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