Profits and Passports

It’s a mixture of the professional and personal, when it comes to the impact of Brexit on the UK’s businesspeople. 

A drop of 10 per cent in income because Sterling's weaker is no fun. 

And neither is having to line up at a longer queue in Passport Control either - which British citizens may face in Europe in the future.

Rupert Symington (pictured here) is one of the latest generation in charge of the Symington Family Group - which has been involved in making port wine since 1882…

…and owns port houses going back much further - including Warre’s, which began around 1670!

In that context, Brexit can be seen as a modest wrinkle in the fabric of time.  The biggest threat in the last 200 years was nationalisation in the 1960s and 1970s.

​I was chatting to Rupert about keeping a firm successful over that timescale ahead of another of my family wealth conferences in September.  But I couldn’t avoid mentioning this challenge too.

Rupert’s well up to the complications ahead.  But it’s an unwelcome additional worry. 

Here’s what he said to me…

I’ll be writing about the Symington family’s success story in a few weeks. 
​And you’ll be able to hear my interview with Rupert on BBC World Service too.

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Here's a snap from the river bank opposite beautiful Porto, where the port is brought to age.