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CEO of Naked Wines on how to choose the right bottle of wine: Boardroom Uncovered
Jan 15, 2025
A career that's taken him from his home in Mexico all the way to Norwich to lead Naked Wines, via Belgium, was probably not something Rodrigo Maza could have predicted when he first started out.
But the chief executive, who has only been in the job for less than a year, has not only settled into his new surroundings, but also already had an impact on turning around the ailing company which enjoyed huge success during the pandemic.
In the latest episode of City AM's Boardroom Uncovered, Maza opened up to Jon Robinson about why he thinks Naked Wines is a "company worth fighting for" and that he has "absolute belief in its value".
Read more of the story here š
https://www.cityam.com/naked-wines-ceo-how-to-choose-the-right-bottle-of-wine/
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Produced by: Jon Robinson, Emmanuel Nwosu, Joe Lee, Joseph Curay Teneda, THG Studios
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0:00
and then around two years later uh I realized that all the systems that I had
0:06
put in place were were were wrong right it turns out that a startup is not a
0:12
mini version of a big company right like it's a completely different piece right so
0:18
I yeah we we ended up shutting that operation down shortly after I had to
0:25
lay off close to 500 employees it was it was brutal first of all like the
0:32
education system you have here is amazing like from someone coming from
0:38
from a very different place like your public educ education system is
0:43
remarkable right and it shows in the people right like English people I find like extremely professional very well
0:51
prepared very smart if I have one criticism is I I think you could be
0:59
bolder turns out that the more aligned a company is across all its levels across
1:05
all its geographies the more autonomy it can grant its employees right so we need
1:12
to find a way that enhances both and when it's not it's not easy to create an
1:18
environment but when you do a amazing work is produced
1:23
[Music]
1:32
hello and welcome to another episode of boardroom uncovered powered by CC my
1:37
name is John Robinson City am's UK editor my guest for this Edition is the CEO of Naked Wines Rodrigo maer Maza
1:46
joined the London listed company in 2023 before taking up the top job the following year having previously worked
1:53
for ab inbev the CEO has been tasked with overseeing a grueling restructuring and
1:59
cutting cost in a bid to return to profit while still loss making naked
2:04
wine still enjoys the backing of its major shareholders and is signaling optimism for the future so what's it
2:11
like to lead a company through such a challenging period and what is the CEO's plan to return his business to the black
2:19
without any further delay let's dive in all right well thank you very much for coming on boarding one C today no thank
2:25
you for having me I suppose we' better start with the big question red white or
2:30
Ros all of them depends on the occasion but yeah you can find every style has a
2:36
purpose has a time and a place do you have a favorite yourself h i do H I'm a sucker for what
2:43
we call the Big Reds right now my goto is uh V Saint saturnin which is a red
2:51
wine from the langed do in the south of France I was lucky enough to spend some time with v during the summer uh learned
2:59
so much from him his family welcomed us into their home and yeah this guy was
3:04
doing organic way before it was cool and trendly his Winery his wine making
3:10
practices has been recognized because of their sustainability aspect so yeah it's a
3:16
wonderful experience I would recommend your audience if they're interested in wine go to a winery you're going to
3:21
learn so much you're going to have a great time it's a an amazing experience you must have gained a lot of knowledge
3:27
about wine throughout your career and especially working in the job that you're in at the moment does that mean
3:32
that when you're with friends and family you're the go-to want to choose the wine from the wine list to the
3:39
restaurants that's the expectation yes I still consider myself an
3:46
apprentice right I'm very early in my learning curve
3:51
and something we believe very deeply in nak is that you should learn by tasting
3:56
not by what everyone else says you should or should like right and people think oh he's the CEO of a wine company
4:03
he's going to tell me what's the exactly the right wine to have with this food or in this moment
4:10
and I believe that doesn't exist right so we encourage people to think for
4:15
themselves to try things out learn what they like what they dislike and make up
4:20
their own minds right so that's at the heart of naked and we try to bring it to
4:25
life in every customer interaction I supp a lot of people not necessarily looking for the best wine but they're
4:31
looking not to buy a bottle of wine at a restaurant that's going to not be what they're looking for going to be a
4:37
disappointment exactly that's you you nailed it right like buying wine at a
4:44
restaurant or a supermarket for most people is a very stressful moment right
4:49
like you are very afraid of making a mistake right so that takes all the fun
4:57
out of what should be a super interesting a super fun category right like this is an amazing product that has
5:03
been with humans for thousands of years but it has become too complex too
5:10
parochial right like you you're always listening to these experts and critics saying like this is how it should be and
5:16
we want to challenge that and we want everyone to make up their mind of what's the right wine for me what's the right
5:24
wine for me now if we can enable that if we can help people make feel more
5:29
comfortable when making that choice then we have delivered on our mission and that's success for Naked Wines I suppose
5:35
it's one of those topics that there's always going to be somebody who knows a lot more always so how do you simplify
5:41
that for people and and make people feel comfortable in choosing several bottles of wine at once that you could through
5:47
through your company we try to just make the the range that we offer easy to
5:54
navigate right whether you're looking for a certain region or a certain style a certain grape a certain wine maker so
6:01
we make it very easy to to filter down your options and hopefully very easy to
6:06
choose now something that we offer is a hassle-free guarantee right so if you
6:12
purchased a wine you you tasted it and you didn't like it you just have to say so and it's very easy to do so in our
6:19
app and we will reimburse you that credit so that you can try another one right what we want is for people to feel
6:27
comfortable taking that risk without any fear like what you describe that like oh I'm
6:32
going to make a mistake I'm going to look back I'm going to pour money down the drain don't worry about that this is
6:37
an amazing category explore the range take risk we got your back there's so many different factors in choosing the
6:43
bottle of wine isn't it obviously there's there's red and white and R it but then there's cked or there's screw
6:50
top or there's full bodied or there's you know the percentage of alcohol that's in it it's it can be quite
6:56
complex and confusing certainly can be right like there are so many elements to consider
7:03
like we lack certain anchors to to to use when making that decision and again it's it's a anxiety
7:13
producing right so what we try to do is to get rid of that anxiety right like
7:18
worst case scenario you bought something you don't like you don't have to worry about that learn about the wine maker
7:25
that produced this wine learn about the story of the winery about the the wine itself right like that's a big part of
7:33
enjoying a bottle right like knowing the story behind it right so we present that very actively we enable the connection
7:39
between the Wine Drinker and the wine maker in our site you're going to see literally thousands of reviews of people
7:46
like you and me by like these are not critics critics are not allowed by saying like I tried this wine I likeed
7:51
it because of XYZ reason and if that resonates with you you can try it
7:57
hopefully you like it and again if you don't nothing happens we enable you to purchase the next one but it's about
8:03
exploration it's about excitement it's about having fun with this amazing
8:09
product with this amazing category and yeah we're just uh so excited to bring
8:15
that purpose to life yeah now obvious you talk about the enjoyment of of buying a bottle of wine and enjoying
8:21
with friends and family but your role as the CEO of Naked Wines must have been
8:26
less enjoyable over the last few years so it's been turbulent to say the least
8:31
how's it been I mean my my position is amazing right
8:38
like I have the chance to join a company that yes has been through a couple of rough years but uh first of all delivers
8:48
an amazing product has a very bold and relevant Mission uh partners with over
8:56
300 wine makers very talented independent wine makers all across the world employs 300 of the most passionate
9:04
talented people in the industry so I'm very happy to be here I'm very excited
9:10
and while the last few years have been tough I do think that in this year since
9:17
I took over uh back in April we have made significant progress to towards
9:22
first stabilizing the company and second most importantly getting it back to growth so in the first semester of this
9:29
year we landed a fit forp purpose credit facility with a very reputable US Bank
9:36
ensure that our financial foundations are very robust right so these H ER
9:43
rumors that were happening in previous years are now behind us right like Naked Wines is safe it's stable and now as I
9:51
said we're fully focused on obsessing with our customers understanding them better finding ways to not only deliver
9:58
on the prodct proes we make to them but exceeding those expectations and getting this word of mouth working for us
10:05
changing our approach to marketing and getting the company growing again in a way that's sustainable and that
10:12
can help us keep the main thing the main thing which is getting great wine into
10:18
the H houses into the hands of our over 600,000 Angels across the world and
10:25
Angels is what we call our customers right and we call them that because our Angels fund our wine makers right what
10:33
makes the model so different is we have 600 people all across the world putting money into their accounts every single
10:40
month we take that money we fund the wine makers up front that allows them to
10:47
focus exclusively on what they do best which is producing worldclass wines and
10:53
and then we sell those wines at preferential prices back to our angels to the people that made it POS
10:59
in the first place so it's really a a powerful flywheel it's a win-win scenario and we're very proud of our
11:08
model it's what makes us different and hopefully makes us stand out so get that stable position of the company that you
11:14
say naked wins is in what impact did that have on you personally that must have taken a toll because you got the
11:20
responsibility the whole company all of those employees on your shoulders you say that you've got to a stable position
11:27
but to get to that point it must have taken a toll on you I mean I won't lie it's certainly
11:33
very stressful but listen No One tricked me
11:38
right like I knew the position the company was in when I joined I knew the position the company was in when I took
11:44
over a CEO right and I did so because I have a an absolute belief in the value
11:49
that this company can deliver sustainably to our customers and to our wine makers right so when you have that
11:58
conviction you can can get through very stressful times as we did and I'm very
12:04
happy to share that the foundations have now been secured and that that enables
12:09
us to focus on what's most important right which is delivering on our
12:14
promises getting people to enjoy the wine category having fun along the way and
12:22
yeah hopefully reminding our investors and our employees that this is a company worth fighting for and man we fight yeah
12:30
and how did you deal with that stressful period yourself what did you do to to to
12:35
manage that I'm a big believer in in routine
12:41
right like there's so much of our lives that we cannot control that feeling in
12:47
control of the elements of it that that are within our grasp is important so I have a a very uh strict routine every
12:56
morning waking up at the same time exercising I journal every morning uh so
13:03
yeah I start the day trying to to keep my tank my gas tank all the way to the
13:09
top I know it's going to be quite depleted throughout the day so like starting at 100% is crucial for me so
13:16
tell me about that day then you get up at the same time every single day what exercise it sounds quite regimented do
13:21
you do it is ER for exercise you mean I I I have a rowing machine at home I have
13:29
uh weights at home so I have like my yeah it's very stable
13:36
routine I drink a lot of water and say why that no that's that comes later in
13:43
the day not in the morning I I stay away from the wine I mean I spend time with my kids uh every morning uh help them
13:51
get ready to school take them to school that's very important for me that I I have quality time with the family at the
13:57
start of the day I go off to work uh we have offices in both London and norch so
14:04
I I travel to work I quite fcy that time in the train like I can focus I can uh
14:10
get on on track with my emails messages all all all that
14:16
comes into your inbox every day and then when I go into the office it's mostly about spending time with my team right
14:23
like different uh meetings some are routines some come come up like topics
14:28
you have to Rea to uh but I try to if I'm in the office I want to spend time
14:33
with people right like otherwise why why be there and then H when I go back home
14:38
we are a global company so there are nights where we have to take some late calls to talk to the people in the US
14:44
and in Australia other nights it's just about relaxing spending time with the family with my wife so yeah a I would
14:53
say it's quite galm outside of work uh but I like it that way now how do you
14:58
manage that work life balance that must come under pressure yeah that's a an
15:03
interesting question I mean balance is a is a a tricky word I find right like
15:11
it's it's it's hard to say like everything's in Balance right I think it's it's more about having the systems
15:18
that can get you back to feeling balanced but it's not about like how many hours of work you do on a single
15:26
day versus how many hours you you relax right like I think if you look at the ratio in my
15:32
life it's it's nowhere near 50/50 and yet I feel quite uh balanced in general
15:39
right like I have my moments as as everyone does where I'm
15:45
a not fully s right but yeah I don't think I would say it's more a it's more
15:53
like thinking that you have a purpose that you're making progress that your
16:00
your family is taken care of that you spend quality time with them that when
16:07
you're working you're fully working when you're with your family you're with your family so it's not about like the
16:12
percentage of time but about the quality of the time that I think is a better way of thinking about it is it sometimes
16:18
difficult to switch off when you finished work or you're on a holiday or the weekend and things like that when
16:23
you're not working you haven't got calls it is it is uh my wife would tell you that I she has
16:31
to get the phone out of my hand sometimes and and it's true and I'm not proud of it but it
16:36
happens uh but yeah it usually takes takes some time to make that transition
16:41
that's that's something that I like about going to the office like the way back from the office that's a great transition point right like okay I'm off
16:49
the train walking to my house like that's the time when I try to leave work behind and now I'm uh going to fully
16:56
focus on my my dinner with my family getting my kids a bath like normal family life which is a lot of fun
17:02
actually is it difficult when you go into a shop and you go down that wine aisle or you go to a restaurant and you
17:07
see the wine list is it difficult to not go into work mode and have a little look
17:13
it is it is it's impossible actually but listen I I try to see the
17:22
world as our customer see it right so I it's not like I go into the why why with
17:29
very like specific ER margin related questions
17:34
right I just like stand there and think like okay if I'm if I'm a customer if I know nothing about wine right like how
17:41
would I make a decision right and I realize that there's no clear pattern
17:47
that helps people make that decision and and I come up with ideas of how naked could take a step at that right so
17:53
that's that's uh how I frame it and yes I do it it's impossible not to and the
17:59
wine that naked wine sell where do it come from what are your suppliers I mean
18:05
it comes from all across the world we have 350 wine makers South America
18:10
Australia New Zealand UK all across Europe in the US obviously so uh you can
18:17
literally find wines from all across the world these are independent wine makers family own
18:24
states true true Craftsmen and women I like people that are obsessed are super
18:32
passionate about this this craft many of them it's like they've worked at this
18:38
for Generations in their family right so it's in their blood
18:43
it's it's it's an obsession to create the best possible wine right and every
18:48
time make it a bit better something that our wine makers always say is that they value the feedback from our Angel so
18:55
much right because you'll get a message on your WI make a a wall right like hey
19:01
this Harvest I didn't like it as much I found found it to be I don't know too acidic or whatever right and wine makers
19:09
take that uh feedback very very seriously right and this is something that they often say to like many times
19:15
when I'm working with other companies like I sell my wine I don't know what happens to it like I don't know if
19:21
people enjoyed it and I don't know how to make it better next time with naked I have this constant feedback loop that
19:28
helps me improve that helps me come up with new ideas new new wine products so
19:33
yeah it's truly a a a virtual cycle that this direct connection enables and how
19:39
do you find these suppliers are you sending teams out across the world to talk to Wine suppliers yes we have uh
19:45
wine teams in in Australia in the US and in the UK ER these people obviously are
19:51
very knowledgeable wine they go and meet with these private individuals family on
19:56
stage and what they look for is three things so the first is obviously very very high quality the second is great
20:03
stories to tell right wine is about the product but it's also about the story behind it right so we're on on the
20:09
lookout for that and third we look for this shared enthusiasm of connecting
20:15
directly to the Wine Drinker right so when we find those three criteria met
20:22
then we will fund their project up front we try to involve the angels in that
20:29
process right so we try to bring them in ask them like what region would you like a wine um to taste of wine from ER what
20:37
type of grape we even ask for questions regarding the The Branding the name so
20:44
it's again this H direct connection enables so many interesting
20:49
possibilities for both sides both parties the consumers and the
20:55
producers and it just I think brings the best out of everyone me a lot of people
21:00
will buy a wine because it's from a certain region they've had it before and they trust it but a lot of other people
21:06
will buy a bottle of wine because it's the right price how do you stay competitive compared to your competitors
21:12
I mean we we take that very seriously right and first of all we're never going
21:18
to be the cheapest option right and that needs to be stated right like we we
21:23
offer fair prices and fair is a key word for us right because we want to be fair
21:29
to our wine makers right we don't want to be the partner that's squeezing their margins and making life hard for them
21:35
right we want to be competitive we need to be competitive but we also want our partners to be happy and excited about
21:42
working with Naked Wines H now having said that we do have these uh pricing
21:48
tears right uh that helps people just very basically understand like okay this
21:54
is a wine for everyday consumption maybe this is a wine for for something special
21:59
this is this is a wine that I'm going to have on on Christmas Eve right like the more exp on the more expensive side of
22:05
things uh but that's perfect right like we want to offer our customers we want
22:11
to meet every wi need they can possibly have and price plays a role in that of
22:17
course for a UK customers are a particular region of the world where your wine is supplied from that's the most popular er no in the UK I mean we
22:25
have a lot of uh Supply from Continental Europe but a lot of Supply from South America from the US Australian and New
22:32
Zealand wines are very popular here in the UK so no it's a worldwide uh offer
22:38
and what about English wine where does that rank H we we have uh English wines
22:43
we have uh two amazing Partners uh one quite near here in darbishire in in
22:50
Kieran Atkinson who's known as the Tom Cruz of boo because he resembles uh Tom
22:57
Cruz an amazing guy uh doing very interesting things and Charles and R in
23:03
Kent world class wine producers we're very H grateful for their partnership
23:09
we're lucky to have played a role in their success so yes I think that the English wine scene is getting more and
23:16
more exciting thank you to our sponsor
23:21
Blackboard a global technology company powering social good across the world blackboard's corporate impact team
23:27
empowers purpose Le organizations to drive change in their communities Maza
23:32
thank you so much for um sitting down with me today reallyy I want to talk to you in this section about your thoughts
23:38
on CSR and the CSR landscape and you know at the moment there are many employees out there looking to earn less
23:45
to work for a more responsible organization Keen to understand what does CSR mean to you as a
23:52
leader I mean it's obviously very important something that I learned
23:58
during the pandemic when I was working for AV inev uh obviously lockdown
24:04
started Mom and Pop shop where yeah at a very high risk of having
24:10
to shut down uh due to a lack of uh sales and something that we did was
24:15
create this digital platform to enable people to continue to make orders to
24:21
their local shops and I was so impressed by the impact that had right like not only did
24:28
we support and played a fundamental role in Saving these businesses but the response
24:34
from customers was unbelievable The Pride from our
24:41
employees was palpable and by the end we
24:46
we ended up with a very interesting platform that we could then start to use for other things right and had
24:53
commercial use and delivered very solid Roi but it started from a true intent of
25:00
doing good doing the right thing for our clients and that led to so many
25:06
interesting opportunity so that's the moment where I would say uh this agenda
25:11
stopped being something that we had to do on top of everything else and became
25:16
like a integrated to the core of our
25:23
business and um I suppose the accent gives it away that you're a originally
25:28
from Mexico correct tell me about growing up there and your experiences I mean I love my country
25:36
right like I lived in Mexico from the time I was born to 38 years old I
25:42
believe I traveled around but that was my my center of gravity uh I think Mexico is an amazing place right like it
25:49
has uh probably probably unrivaled like cultural offer the food is man I miss it
25:56
so much uh it's uh just uh unbelievable uh the weather is amazing you have like
26:03
every every climate you have amazing beaches you can go to the rainforest you can go to the mountains what did it
26:09
comes the UK Mexico also has challenges right also
26:14
has challenges uh I think that the security situation in the country is quite
26:20
critical when I had kids that became very important to me so that was a a a
26:29
driver for me wanted to get my family to a different place and work and personal interested uh
26:37
combined to take me to Europe so I I worked at a inbf for 18 years largest
26:44
Brewer in the world the headquarters are based in Len in Belgium so an opportunity to move to Belgium came up
26:52
and and we moved there in 2022 quite the difference in in location and weather
26:58
and Foods how did you manage the adjustments I mean it's uh it's quite scary right like when you make the
27:05
decision it's it's quite scary you don't know if you're going to find the right food thing uh but it in the end it was
27:14
surprisingly easy right I'm from Mexico my family is from Spain so I have a European passport so that made just like
27:21
the transition setting things up very very easy ER Belgian people are amazing
27:27
so nice everyone went out of their way to make us feel at home we struggled a
27:33
bit with the weather right my son was getting uh depressed at
27:39
some point we had to get him a lamp that that sense like a Sun raise uh so that
27:44
he would like to chew up a bit so yeah it comes with challenges uh but but we loved it we had
27:51
a great experience there and it was while I was in Belgium that I first uh
27:57
learned about nak and started the conversations with them and we moved to the UK back in September of 23 uh to
28:05
Cambridge which for me is great as I said like it's right in between norch and London
28:10
and it's been great my family is great the kids love the school my my wife like
28:16
loves the the city it's quite gone uh great quality of life so yeah we're fans
28:22
uh of the UK for sure uh we love the pops the your pops are amazing I wish we
28:29
had Pops in like yours in Mexico uh but yeah we we're very happy here and hope
28:35
to stay here for a long time is there a situation that you'd look to go back to Mexico at some point or is it a bit
28:40
difficult now I've learned that like planning that far ahead like it's it's uh it doesn't
28:47
really work we go back to Mexico every Christmas to see our family right and
28:53
our families are quite scattered across the world uh now so it's a time to get together uh I try to go to the beach
29:00
right especially December like we get away from the cold uh at least spend a few days in amazing weather have uh
29:06
lovely food but I'm quite happy with that Arrangement like as I said I love
29:11
my country being there once a year uh I I plan to keep on doing but I'm also
29:17
very happy to to be here with my family did you always think that you were going to have to leave Mexico no I didn't it
29:24
wasn't until my daughter was born that that became that that went from not being uh a priority for me to to
29:32
becoming a very uh very high in the priority list so yeah life changes when
29:37
you you become a father uh and yeah I became quite sensitive to the to the
29:45
insecurity and and yeah the challenges that my country faces you must have felt an awful sense of responsibility moving
29:52
your family your young family from Mexico all the way to Belgium and all the uncertainty that comes with with
29:58
that how did you deal with that I I'm not the kind of person that needs to have all the answers right I need to
30:04
have a real conviction in one thing and
30:10
the the conviction that I had is my family is going to be safer and I will figure everything else
30:17
out as I go like my wife is not like that so I think that maybe for my wife
30:23
it was more challenging like uh how are we going to make school work and where are we going to leave and how are we
30:31
going to like set up a a healthy family routine in Mexico we have this amazing
30:36
support network with our with our family nearby we don't know anyone there so CH
30:41
was I think much more uh stressed about the the
30:47
setup but in in my view it's like this is what's right for the family and we I
30:52
trust us to figure it out and we have right so I think it's a good a a
30:58
dynamic between me and my wife where I'm going to be the guy that that's pushing to take us to to to take certain risks
31:06
and she's the one that's going to finally make it work so yeah we're a good team and I'm sensing from your
31:12
career path what you've described about it that you're not somebody who sat down and thought out a 5ye 10e plan for your
31:18
career you want to be a CEO by this year hitting these marks throughout your
31:23
career is it something that's just happened more organically and you taking the opportunities are sort of reason listen I I I like to solve hard
31:32
problems I like to build and I like to work with ambitious people because I
31:38
myself I'm very ambitious right so that's what I've prioritized throughout my career right like finding challenges
31:45
that allow me to do those three things and I've trusted that the rest would
31:52
take care of itself right whether it's a a title or salary or anything else that
31:58
that comes with that and that has worked quite well for me I would I would recommend the approach and your sense of
32:04
I'm interested in your sense of the UK business culture and the U UK you know
32:10
whether it open to business in the world um obviously post brexit you've worked obviously in Mexico in Europe and now in
32:17
the UK The Narrative seems to be in the UK it's all doom and gloom you know it's
32:22
not gross or it's not quick enough or you're always looking over our shoulders and looking to the continent what what's
32:28
your perception of British industry and British business I mean it's very positive right like the first of all
32:34
like the education system you have here is amazing like from someone coming from
32:41
from a very different place like your public educ education system is remarkable right and it shows in the
32:48
people right like English people I find like extremely professional very well
32:53
prepared very smart if I have one criticism is I I think you could be bolder right I
33:03
think there there's a lot of uh caution that I see every every day right and the
33:10
average Mexican would kill for the average English man or woman preparation
33:16
right and yet when an opportunity comes our way like we seee it right and we
33:21
might be unprepared for it but we we will go for it right and we will trust ourselves to figure things out and
33:27
sometimes do and sometimes we don't but we we attack right I think that's true
33:33
for for Latin America right not only for Mexico but we're we're maybe
33:42
underprepared but we're ready to prounce I think is the the wor I see a bit of
33:48
the opposite here right like I think there's a lot of preparation but I think you could do with less
33:55
caution and I'm generaliz think here of course which you should never do but that's that's kind of my headline view
34:02
of the of the labor market in the UK so how do Business Leaders be more V I
34:10
think it starts with uh defining a very ambitious uh Vision right and and the
34:18
vision that makes people a bit uncomfortable right like but yeah but how will we get there right
34:25
and the answer is like we have I don't know 60 70% Clarity of of how we will
34:31
close that Gap and maybe you have 30 40% a void right and you don't know what
34:38
you're going to do but you have to trust yourself that you will be able to figure things out that as you go you will learn
34:44
things and you will fail and you will get up and you will get better and eventually you'll get there right but if
34:51
the vision is like not stretching you that there I don't know who said this
34:56
right but but I believe the this phrase is true that if you cannot fail you cannot learn right so you really have to
35:03
embrace that discomfort right for us it's like we want to change the way the
35:09
category is perceived right that's a that seems even silly to some people
35:16
like yeah yeah how are you going to do that right but we very strongly believe that wine is unnecessarily complex that
35:24
the category is basically designed to make Fe make people feel ill prepared to
35:30
make some basic purchasing decisions right and we believe we can change that
35:36
and we're going to die trying right whether we'll succeed we'll see right
35:41
I'm going to bet on my team that we will right but that's what I mean by saying
35:46
like it's very bold like we don't know exactly what the path is but it's a path worth taking do you feel that it's
35:53
easier to be bolder if you're leading a private company whereas obviously Naked
35:59
Wines is listed your finances are updated every 3 months to the stock
36:04
exchange you've got a lot of shareholders you got a share price that's very public obviously do you
36:09
think that that sometimes cails some people's confidence because they're on show you know the the problems that
36:15
Naked Wines has been through the last few years it's on show for all to see I mean it's it's certainly very
36:22
challenging right and being honest like the start of the year was quite vol
36:27
atile as we figured out like how to deliver on our day-to-day trading
36:32
objectives while setting up a really ambitious testing agenda to to challenge
36:39
all elements of the business in order to get it back to sustainable growth right
36:44
so trying to do both things at once is very challenging and it's something that
36:50
we have to do because we're public right maybe if we weren't we could take a more long-term view approach on certain
36:57
things uh but that's that's our current setup it's it also has like good good the
37:04
elements to it right and I think the aim has been like a very supportive environment for naked across its history
37:10
right so there's no perfect setup this is the one we have we make the best out
37:15
of it and we we are optimistic about our futures talk to me about your leadership
37:21
style then are you more presidential are you handing down the orders from the top of the border and chair or are you
37:28
you sort of more collaborative and uh and do you Empower your fellow Executives to to run their elements of
37:34
Ved Wines in the way the AC fits what do you like I mean I I I guess you would have
37:41
to have my team uh but there are three things that I that I
37:48
try to be at least right so the first the first uh is a concept uh called high
37:53
alignment High autonomy so what that means we usually think of these these
37:58
things as they're opposites right either I'm aligned or I'm autonomous right in
38:03
my experience that's not how it works right it turns out that the more aligned a company is across all its levels
38:10
across all its geographies the more autonomy it can grant its employees
38:15
right so we need to find a way that enhances both and when it's not it's not
38:23
easy to create an environment but when you do a amazing work is produced so
38:30
that that's always like front and center uh for me the second is
38:35
I I like to think that I'm demanding and supportive right so I do expect a lot of
38:42
people right like I have very high standards starting with myself and I want the people around me to share those
38:49
standards and to keep pushing them all the time right now I also take the time to create the conditions for people to
38:59
develop for people to produce great work I like to bet on people I like to stretch them I like to give them
39:04
opportunities that they don't feel they're quite ready for right so yes there's a lot of uh pressure and demand
39:11
but there's also a lot of hopefully a lot of support that's uh created for
39:17
them and then the third thing I I mentioned already right like I like to dream big right I and I like the people
39:23
that work with me to share that uh ambition I just
39:28
think life is short man like it's life is too short to spend over half your day on something that doesn't like truly
39:35
engage you and yeah I strongly believe that and
39:41
I surround myself with people who think that way too looking back over your career is there a success that jumps out
39:48
at you that you're particularly proud of to date I
39:54
mean at naked I would say that they we we signed that great facility was a very
40:00
happy day H for me for for the the team I think the finance team did an amazing
40:06
uh job in securing that because just like it it it it helped us put behind us
40:14
like years of speculation and volatility right and from that day I knew okay now
40:20
we can keep the main thing the main thing focus on the customer deliver more value uh in a a AB inev I was fortunate
40:29
I had many successes also many failures uh one that stands out is uh I I used to
40:36
run like big mature operations at some point I was tasked with launching the
40:41
first digital Venture for the company and I jumped on the opportunity I
40:48
basically used all the systems that had worked for me in the past like implemented in this new Company the
40:54
company started growing quite fast was feeling on top of the world thinking
40:59
entrepreneurship is very simple and then around two years later uh I realized
41:05
that all the systems that I had put in place were were were wrong right it
41:11
turns out that a startup is not a mini version of a big company right like it's a completely different past right so
41:20
I yeah we we ended up shutting that operation down shortly after I had to
41:26
lay off close to 500 employees it was it was brutal man like it was the the low
41:33
point of my my career uh and why am I saying you asked
41:40
me about the success and I'm talking about the the failure right biggest failure of my career failure sucks like
41:47
I I don't understand why it's been romanticized lately like it's it's painful but good can come out of it
41:54
right so something that happened to me is I real realized I need to learn a lot about like how to actually build a
42:01
business from the ground up and I have been doing that since I do it to today and it's been an amazing journey and I
42:09
learned about a lot about resilience because I relaunched that company a second time which worked which
42:17
failed again but when we launched it the third time it actually clicked right so from
42:24
the start we we we put all that we have learned all the trauma to good use and that company
42:33
to these days now flying all across Latin America uh and and that's a success that
42:40
I feel very proud of because it it was only possible because of the
42:46
failures that we had experienced that we could create this H amazing new company
42:52
so that's that's a story I suppose their time is a charm in that story but when
42:57
you lay off hundreds of people yeah that must have an impact on you personally
43:03
that's 500 families affected their future is uncertain because of something
43:09
that might have been outside of the business's control but you were head of that business what does that how does
43:15
that impact you personally I mean it's very hard right like you had
43:21
to if if it doesn't like hit you personally like you there's something wrong with you I think
43:29
ER it was very hard right like I it's a weight that you have to carry for sure
43:36
something that we did ER we we set up
43:42
a I don't know how to say like a a private job fair let me put that way so
43:47
we have strong Partnerships with I mean groupo Modelo is the largest Brewer in
43:53
Mexico right it's a massive company we have tons of Partnerships with with several other very big companies so we
44:00
reached out to them and we said like this is what happened right like we have
44:06
this business we need to shut it down we have uh hundreds of people that are very
44:11
talented like High Caliber individuals we are recommending these people to you
44:18
right and they most of them were interested so
44:25
the day we had to to announce that the shutting down the company and and all the
44:31
firings we like in the Next Room we had like I don't know 20 of the biggest
44:36
companies in the country uh taking their CVS immediately right
44:42
so that was very important to them right to the people exiting because it showed
44:48
that we cared right we cared about them and their well-being it was also very important to
44:55
the people that stayed right because their their belief and their
45:02
attachment to the business grew much stronger right like it it wasn't just uh
45:08
talking right and saying people are important right like we we we walked that talk and people valued it so again
45:18
very very probably the worst day in my professional career right but I think we got some things right and it was about
45:24
being taking a human approach and I I don't think I've ever said this
45:31
right but now that I'm saying it I I feel quite proud of the way we managed a very very difficult
45:37
situation but now you're naked wies helping to turn that around your plan for the next year two
45:45
years three years do you expect obviously you can't go into the details financially but do you expect the
45:51
business to now grow and to really take off now that you've got the facility in
45:56
place you've laid the building blocks over the last few months or so yeah so we have secured the financial Foundation
46:04
we continue to make a lot of progress selling our Surplus inventory so that will only strengthen our cash position
46:11
and we are now fully focused on implementing a a testing plan right so
46:17
how fast do we get back to growth is going to be determined by the results of the testing plan right so while I'm
46:25
optimistic and we're we're seeing great signals from the test that we're running I'm not going to make a claim saying
46:32
like oh yeah this is a moment where we're going to go back to growth until we have like aged out data that confirms
46:40
that right so I think ER we we need to to to Le that the right
46:47
balance right now between optimism and rigor and that's what me and my team are
46:53
trying to do and obviously you know you'd say that being the CEO of Naked Wines is your dream job of course if you
47:00
weren't doing that if that's not the reality what is your dream
47:06
job could be anything in the
47:12
world I mean I'm a I'm a football fanatic right so that's where my head immediately goes I I mean I would love
47:20
to to run a football club for sure which one Real Madrid yeah I'm a
47:29
massive but I probably start with something smaller my family is from Santander in Spain I would probably like
47:35
to take over ring the S so if you're listening I'm I'm coming for you sometime soon well you never know what
47:43
might happen in the future thank you very much for coming on board from covered no thank you thank you
47:48
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