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5 mins with... Akos Forczek, founder & chairman, Top Selection

This is the sixth major recession in the wine industry I’m living through. I started in 2000 and I had 9/11, then SARS came, which was like the precursor of Covid. That had a massive impact in Asia, but [the market] rebounded. Then the 2007 financial crisis, then we were hit by Brexit, which was, retrospectively speaking, a good thing, but at the time very scary. Then Covid, and now this situation, so we’ve been around the block.

You learn how to react to events like this and you have to stick to your core competences and what you have been doing, although there are always new ways of doing [business] with new people, because people change and businesses change. We are ultimately a people business. This is the one aspect that has always carried us through every difficult moment – the long-lasting relationships we have with our clients and suppliers.

In the past, the UK has been quick to react to any financial crisis, and equally fast in rebounding. But now I don’t see the rebounding. It’s not just the wine industry, there’s a general environment of uncertainty. No business likes uncertainty, and the governments currently in place basically provide uncertainty, and that has a massive impact on people’s willingness to spend. I don’t think there’s been a period when there was more cash floating around than today, but no one will invest with this uncertainty.

• wine
• UK market
• top selection
• importer
• agent
• Top 50 Wholesaler
• Akos Forczek