The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) held its 2025 Industry Summit last week with renowned restauranteur, Jeremy King, headlining – and he did not disappoint.
A true icon of British hospitality, Jeremy’s influence on London’s dining scene spans decades – from his early days at Joe Allen to co-founding landmark establishments such as The Wolseley, The Delaunay, The Ivy, and Brasserie Zédel. And on to his most recent ventures – Jeremy King Restaurants – including Arlington and The Park, and the hotly anticipated reopening of Simpson’s in the Strand.
Jeremy took us through the highs and lows of his extraordinary journey through the hospitality world, including what it takes to build a brand that stands the test of time and shared his thoughts on leadership and resilience in the face of change.
During an engaging and honest conversation with long-time Summit host, journalist Alex Forrest Whiting, Jeremy stressed that his egalitarian approach to life was key to his success.
He spoke passionately about treating both the customer and staff with respect and humour.
He told the packed auditorium at the British Library: “Look after everybody, from the person who answers the phone, the PA, to the person running the cloakroom. Staff like it when you are interested and know their name, everyone wants to know their voice is being heard.”
Similarly, he reminded us to look after the customers, he added: “Generosity is what really counts.”
Jeremy revealed he was a big believer in making the customer feel special and giving them what he called “a limoncello moment” at the end of a meal or a free mini bar in their hotel room.
He added: “Give people a range of spend and don’t make them feel they have to pay more than they can afford. The most important thing for any business is to have authority that people trust. You get loyalty through honesty, fidelity and generosity.
“You can’t over kowtow to the rich and famous because everyone else will feel inferior.
When Princesses of Wales came in to Le Caprice, if I ran over all Uriah Heep it would look pathetic and she certainly wouldn’t have liked that.”
But even when things were not going well for Jeremy he kept his cool. He said: “It’s not how we triumph it’s how we deal with adversity. Keep the humour and don’t be afraid to ask for help.”
Discussing how he coped when he lost his business in 2022 he said: “When I have a problem I look for the good things in it. I divide problems into happy problems and unhappy problems and even with the unhappy problems try to look for a positive.
Even when times are hard, you have to believe that things will come round. It’s important not to cling on to things that have gone before. The key to getting back up on your feet is being able to adapt and change.”
As well as hearing from Jeremy, Alex also hosted a panel session of cross-industry experts to explore how geopolitical shifts are reshaping the outlook for UK wine and spirits.
Summing up the trading landscape at present one of the panellists, Julian Dyer, COO UK & Europe at Australian Vintage, gave a simple honest answer:
“We do live in a crazy time, it is just nuts at the moment. We aren’t getting consistency. The ever changing situation with global tariffs is incredibly disruptive. Where we can we are trying to be more prepared and nimble.”
However Julian reflected that it wasn’t just the global politics which was making trading tough for wine and spirit businesses, the domestic barriers were proving as much of a nightmare.
He said: “It feels like we are under attack from 3 letter acronyms at the moment. There is a lack of understanding in Government of the challenges our industry is facing. Anything that can clobber us has got 3 letters – EPR, RAM, PRN and DRS”
He added: “The change to duty rates for wine is incredibly complex, it feels like a teetotaler with a spreadsheet must have designed it. It’s had major implications for wine makers and made it more complicated to trade.”
This was a good segue to remind the audience that the WSTA thankfully has four letters – not the dreaded three – and is here to help with all the tricky bits. Helping our members is the WSTA’s raison d’etre.
WSTA Chief Executive Miles Beale said:
“We are delighted that the 2025 WSTA Industry Summit was such a roaring success. Thank you to all the speakers and everyone who attended. The Summit was followed by another successful networking event at The Standard Hotel. We reached capacity and were delighted to serve a range of our members’ drinks to guests. It was a fantastic opportunity to catch up with industry colleagues in a relaxed environment.
As we said to members at the event, please lean on the WSTA to allow space for you all, as businesses, to keep on innovating and doing the right thing for consumers – to keep our industry vibrant.”
