Hotaling & Co.
It is with great sorrow that Hotaling & Co. and co-owner Berry Bros. & Rudd shares that on Sunday, January 10, John Rudd passed away quietly at his home at the age of 94. The father of current Berry Bros. & Rudd Chairman Lizzy Rudd, and her brothers Richard and Edward, who also sit on the Berry Bros. & Rudd Board, John Rudd was a key player in the U.S. spirits trade throughout his long and illustrious career. Berry Bros. & Rudd is part owner in Hotaling & Co., the San Francisco-based artisanal spirits importer and distiller.
John served 72 years as a director of the well-known family firm, established in 1698. A modest English gentleman of impeccable integrity and a warm, understated sense of humor, he was known for his rare ability to combine traditional values with a practical and entrepreneurial flair for business.
In 1948, after several years serving in the British Army, John Rudd joined Berry Bros. & Rudd. His task was to assist in the annual stock take, alongside the other Directors of the business and the Cellar Clerks. At this time the business employed approximately 40 people, and everyone was based as the company’s historic headquarters at No.3 St James’s Street.
Six months into his career as a wine and spirits merchant, John was sent to Scotland to visit The Glenlivet Distillery and learn all he could from William (Bill) Smith Grant, the great-grandson of George Smith, the founder of The Glenlivet distillery. This early education in whisky was to prove a vital start to John’s career.
During his early years in the business, John Rudd’s career was focussed on understanding both sides of the family business – wines and spirits. The company’s spirits business predominately focussed on one brand, Cutty Sark Scotch Whisky, which Berry Bros. & Rudd had developed back in 1923.
John Rudd became increasingly involved with running the Spirits side of the business, taking on the responsibility for the brand development of Cutty Sark around the world and especially here in the US. Under his leadership Cutty Sark whisky became the largest selling Scotch whisky brand in the US, the world’s largest whisky market. In 1961 sales reached 1 million case sales in the US – the first scotch whisky brand to reach this impressive milestone.
In 1966, John Rudd was made Managing Director. His role required considerable amounts of travel to ensure Cutty’s continued success in international markets and John built strong trusted relationships and friendships with his business partners all over the world, many of which continue to this day.
At its peak over 20 million bottles of Cutty Sark were being shipped to the US each year and ‘Cutty’ was shipped to more than 100 countries around the world.
John took on the position of Chairman of Berry Bros. & Rudd in 1985, a position he held for 15 years. In 2000, John stepped away from the Chairman role and took on a Non-Executive Director role on the company’s Board of Directors, a position he held until his own retirement from the family firm in 2016, following 72 years of service.