Entrepreneur – Andrew Azzopardi, No 12 Fine Wines & Provisions

Monique: So welcome to this week’s entrepreneur interview with me, Monique Chambers and this week’s actually entrepreneur is Andrew Azzopardi from No.12 Fine Wines and Provisions. Now that sounds like my dream job, actually, I don’t know about being A JOB, JOB, Fine Wines and Provisions. Tell us all about that.

Andrew: Yeah, sounds like a dream job, doesn’t it? I think most people I meet ask me what I do, the reaction is impressive. Everybody thinks it’s the dream job. It does sound glamorous. It has its really good fun moments, but it’s not at all a dream job.

Monique: So what does the company actually do? Fine Wines and Provisions for whom? Andrew: Okay, so basically we sell premium wines or actually any wine, but generally premium

wines to Super yachts and a super yacht is identified as any yacht over 30 meters. Monique: That’s quite a big yacht.

Andrew: Yes, pretty large. We’ve got our main warehouse and head office in Malta, but we also have two subsidiary offices. One is in Majorca and the Balearic islands of Spain and then other one in Barcelona; it’s just recently been opened. They are larger sales offices than Malta but the head office is actually Malta since the company was started here.

Monique: So I’m guessing, Mr. Prada has his super yacht. I’m just pulling a name out of the sky for this. Mr. Prada tells chef, I want this kind of wine or chef decides that you’re having this kind of wine?

Andrew: So basically, Mr. Prada would probably go to his secretary and say, I want these wines on my yacht. She will then contact either the captain, generally speaking, the captain or the management company depending on the size of the yacht. And then the captain would hand it over to either the Chief stewardess or the purser generally speaking, when it comes to wine, depending on the size of the yacht. So if it’s a 30 meter, which is a small sized yacht, there will be a chief stewardess and she would decide what wines are to be on the yacht or she would go by Mr. Prada’s recommendations, or it would be the purser if it’s a larger yacht say it’s 60, 70 or 80 meter yacht, then you’d have a purser that just does the purchasing and they would organize the wine list, the spirits list, they would do all the purchasing for food, interior, whatever it may be, together with all the other heads of departments.

Monique: So you sort of know the wine tastes of all the rich and famous, so to speak.

Andrew: To a certain extent, yes. Well yes and no. Basically, the super yacht industry is a very secretive industry so I know many yachts but do I always know the owner? No.

Monique: Okay. And you don’t know who’s going to be on board?

Andrew: No that’s what actually brings it to the next part. So there are yachts that are private owned so for example, Mr. Prada has his yacht and he uses his yacht whenever he wants. Generally speaking, what happens is, Mr. Prada buys a yacht, loves it, really enjoys it. Two years down the line he realizes he doesn’t have much time for this. So it’s draining him financially or whatever and he decides to charter it out and that’s when Miss Kim Kardashian would come along and say I want to go for a week to Ibiza. So she would charter out Mr. Prada’s yacht in Ibiza for a week. And that’s when we would then sell the wines or provision the wines to the very same yacht that Kim Kardashian would be on but I would never know that Kim Kardashian is on it. Most of the times I wouldn’t know.

Monique: Okay, so you sort of just get an order and you can’t assume that the next order is going to be the same.

Andrew: Absolutely not. So we do know mainly which yachts are private owned and don’t go out on charter and which yachts go out on charter or heavily chartered those obviously are our best clients.

Monique: So you obviously have to keep in these warehouses that you have, you have to keep their expensive wines and some very favorites.

Andrew: That’s how it works. The business really runs on knowing what are the brand names that the rich and famous want and that is what you need to have in stock. Generally speaking, it’s not the really the rare wine that you have to have in stock you need to know where to source it from where to get it from but it’s the big movers Château Romassan Rosé that is the biggest mover at the moment [Monique interrupts]

Monique: It’s a nice easy boat party drinking.

Andrew: Exactly. That’s you’ve got to have in stock and then you need to deliver that sometimes within days or within hours.

Monique: Now this might be a stupid question, how do you deliver wines to a boat?

Andrew: Okay generally speaking they understand that you don’t have the means or might not have the means to deliver by tender. So generally speaking. depending on where it is if it’s in for example Malta, Majorca, Barcelona where it’s relatively simple because we have our warehouse. We deliver with our own transport we go to the Marina and deliver to the marina.

Monique: While they’re in at sea.
Andrew: Yes while they’re in the sea. And if they’re out at sea which can also be the case these

yachts have their own tender very large
Monique: Which is also a yacht but maybe the size of a regular boat?

Andrew: Yes but I’ve seen some tenders, they’re absolutely nuts. I’m speaking fifty foot and sixty foot tenders. So for them to come to the shore to pick up the wine is easy as ABC.

Monique: And do you have to fly them in because they’re far out at sea? Is it like helicopter type service?

Andrew: Generally speaking, that is done in areas like Caribbean, Ibiza. Not so much that’s generally when they want to show off.

Monique: Not because they’ve had the most amazing party and they’ve run out of wine. Andrew: Not really. Because most of the crew are so professional in what they do, they know

what can possibly run out and they have good stocks. Monique: [Laughs] They know who’s coming. [Laughs]

Andrew: Plus you get a provisions list, a wish list, in advance of either the charter or the owner so the owner or charter is let’s say Kim Kardashian. Before she charters the yeacht, she writes down listen; I would like to have this champagne, this rosé, this red wine or this white wine. Obviously there are these moments where there are wines you don’t have on board but they’re few and far between.

Monique: Good. And what happens in terms of storage and stuff because wines on a boat; do they all have fridges I mean we have a tiny little fridge on our boat so I’m guessing these boats have serious fridges, the right temperature control.

Andrew: Funnily enough, not all of them. What happens is it’s not always the same owner that owns the boat now that builds the boat. So what happens is the previous owner wouldn’t have thought about wines. On many times, it’s the last thing the ship builder or the interior designer would think of. And then it’s a bit of after-thoughts and then the new owners are big wine fanatics and he’s got a problem. So he wants to design a new wine storage on board or the current owner is even more difficult and wants you to store his wines without actually investing in wine storage. So that’s when we come in to help the crew find the best area for wine. So we also do a lot of master classes, teaching and training. A lot of the crew don’t really know that much about wine.

Monique: They just sort of enjoy drinking it. But like most of your average Joes.
Andrew: Yeah, pretty much plus they like the glamorous lifestyle as well. So when they are not

working on the yacht then they’re not going for the same wine that the owner drinks.

Monique: It just kind of ruins your salary though. [Laughs]

Andrew: They do have quite a few issues with this. Looking after their salary, investing their salary, not living to the same standards. Let’s face it, they work hard. But they also party hard. So when they’re off shift and they’re partying they know how to party.

Monique: So how did the idea come about? Because it’s really niche really obvious in a way but really niche.

Andrew: Actually the company is partly owned by Salvo Grima & Sons, the ship suppliers been around since 1860 in Malta so very long standing family company. I was working with the company since 2010 in a previous business development role and the culture of Salvo Grima is actually pretty cool; very often on a Friday afternoon we stop for drinks in one of our offices having wine or whiskey or whatever.
One Friday night, it was a little bit heavier than usual and the company besides doing ship supplies , we do super yacht supply, so food, beverages, technical equipment.

Monique: Okay.

Andrew: We had a specific client that used to buy a lot of wine, and we thought, is there a market for this? And we got talking a little bit, looked into the project further, and it seemed really interesting, and that’s how it went for it. So in 2012, we decided to name the company No.12. We wanted to make it different from Salvo Grima. We got in Spanish partners, so we can open up in Majorca.

Monique: Because obviously there are lots of super yachts are there.

Andrew: Exactly. So difference from Salvo Grima is that we went international from the outset immediately, we said, we’re going to go international. At the end of the day, super yachts move, they go from Malta to Majorca to Monaco, then to the Caribbean for the winter back. And it’s always the same super yacht, so if we can supply this super yacht wherever they may be.

Monique: Perfect, because they’re not going to have any residual supply from anybody else. And what happens as you were saying about storage, what happens if they do open a bottle in a series of bottles and something’s not quite right, can you just replace that kind of thing, you have this network of logistics?

Andrew: Well, technically we don’t replace, however, there were times where we did replace and that depends on the client. Unfortunately, it’s part of the risk especially when you buy an expensive rare wine. What we do is we kind of show provenance of the wine and that’s really important and that’s something else we also have as part of our training to crew. So what we do is we have to know where our wine comes from, that’s the most important, that’s key, how it’s stored, we also keep them stored temperature controlled, humidity controlled at all times so once that is in place, 99% of the time the wine is fine.

Monique: Because even on land wine goes bad you know, because if you’re shipping it, it’s just a what happens if you know

Andrew: For example, yesterday, we closed a deal on a 1980 Romana Conte, 1980 is quite a few years old so we cannot guarantee that once you open it, it’s perfect. So it’s a risk.

Monique: Did you ever see Only Fools and Horses? Yes. Those are the one with the vintage wine which I think was the very last episode. And it actually put me off expensive wines because I was so scared.

Andrew: It is scary. I mean, I obviously love wine. So even for myself when I buy a vintage wine or I age my own wine, it is sad when you bought a case of wine. You’ve kept it for ten or fifteen years. You open it and damn it, it’s off.

Monique: Horrible. Yeah. You can’t even cook with it. Well we’ll have to find out the usage for off wine. Maybe that could be an adventure. So what’s the sort of typical day? You don’t wake up and wine taste? What do you what do?

Andrew: Actually that’s a good question. Because due to wine tasting, you’ve got to be a little bit careful that you don’t over wine tastes or drink too much. So generally speaking, funnily enough, I’m usually up at five in the morning, 6am I’m in the pool swimming. So I train every day Tuesday to Sunday and then I’m at work around nine o’clock. Okay I say I’m at work at nine o’clock usually it’s nine quarter past but I blame it on traffic. Then I usually go on AIS live, which is our Marine traffic.

Monique: Yeah, you see the ships where they are and that stuff.

Andrew: Exactly. So you see where the yachts are, what’s going in what’s going out, attend to all my emails at that time or I go down to the marina so my morning is usually very depending on how much administration I have. So I’m either at the marina or attending to emails or Skype calls with my office in Barcelona, discussing the day basically. Then in the afternoons, I try and keep it more on marketing, sales expansion, strategy etc.

Monique: Because you’re actually targeting people at sea pretty much. You’re targeting the stewardess, the purser, obviously the owner, so there’s a difference. You have this two pronged approach I guess to your marketing. They need to know and like obviously, October November time, you’ve new vintages, new harvests. So you really need to know everything that’s coming out not just last year strength need to know [Andrew interrupts]

Andrew: I know I need to have tomorrow’s strength [Laughs] Monique: So the next summer they’re drinking the right wine.

Andrew: Funnily enough, I don’t know if it is funny actually. It’s strangely enough what I’ve learned is the rich and famous are not trendsetters.

Monique: Okay, they just like the classics.

Andrew: No, actually they go for what is the trend. Because for example, if it’s champagne, I want people to know what champagne I’m drinking. If I’m drinking a champagne that nobody knows then I’m not showing off enough.

Monique: So they’re not leadsetters.

Andrew: I’m mostly generalizing yeah this Kim Kardashian stereotype. Somebody low key basically like Steven Spielberg type of thing. He’s a low key I mean he’s not after a show off so then he would maybe be a trendsetter or he would go for something more niche or more unknown. But if it’s the IB type of party, then they go for what’s already trendy.

Monique: And is it generally champagne, champagne champagne? Is that your best seller? Andrew: Our number one is champagne, and Rosé white by far, then it probably goes to

Bordeaux, Burgundy and Super Tuscans.
Monique: So you speak Italian and you have to speak French as well? Andrew: My French is much better than my Italian.
Monique: Okay. It’s unusual for me.
Andrew: Strangely enough yeah.
Monique: Maybe it’s the French wine.

Andrew: Maybe it’s because I was too into sports. And I was young more than TV. [Laughs]

Monique: Yeah, that could be just too picky. [Laughs]

Andrew: So I never really watched TV when I was young, it bored me. So unfortunately, I didn’t really learn Italian like many of the kids my age did, but then I studied French. Okay, well, I studied French at school and then I did a stash in Brussels for a year. Okay, that’s where I learned French.

Monique: No I did my stash in France as well. And this awful woman said to me at the time she said Oh your accent is so Parisian and I was so happy and my friend lent to me and said; nobody in Paris is French. [Laughs]

Andrew: I got the opposite reaction was I was working at the Hilton in Brussels and a Parisian woman came up to the reception and I spoke to her in Belgian and she goes; I don’t understand Belgian I only speak French. I thought; okay I think we are in Brussels.
It was actually the numbers. French and Belgian numbers are slightly different

Monique: And thankfully so are the French and the Belgians anyway. [Laughs] So most of your clients are they boats that are registered in sort of state side and they’re traveling around Europe or it’s just a huge mix?

Andrew: Pretty much a mix.
Monique: And how do you target them? Is there like super yacht buyers magazine or what?

Andrew: Okay as I said before our clients are mainly the captain, chiefs and purser so they are the people I really target more than the high net worth individual more than the Steven Spielberg or Kim Kardashian themselves because they decide what wine they’re choosing, it’s the purser that decides where they’re going to get the wine from. So she is my target. So yes we do advertise in super yacht magazines but technically the super yacht magazines that are targeting the crew and the captain. So the magazines that you find in the crew mess are our number one target through marketing and printed marketing. Then we also target them which is maybe one of the toughest part of the business through door to door sales. So you go to the marina, you ring the bell, you introduce yourself way from what you can do how can I help and hope for the best.

Monique: So do you have a sponsor like crew parties?

Andrew: Yes exactly we do a lot of sponsorship for crew parties. A lot of free training, wine tasting.

Monique: Yeah quite a lot of blog stuff on your website actually, it’s quite interesting. Andrew: Exactly.
Monique: I learned I learned. [Laughs]

Andrew: You did? [Laughs]. We obviously participate in a lot of the yacht shows. Monaco yacht show, the myba yacht show in Barcelona which was previously in Geneva so those are charter shows just for the industry so it’s not a show for the buyer, it’s a show just for people that work within the yacht industry so we target these.

Monique: So we wouldn’t sort of hear about that, the regular people. Andrew: Pretty much no, except for the Monaco yacht show.

Monique: So how much is it to charter one of those massive yachts-ish? Like just a little 30 metres.

Andrew: Not including fuel not including food and not including beverages it could be easily up to 50 k or 60 k a week and that’s on the relatively smaller side.

Monique: Okay
Andrew: And then fuel is expensive. And I mean berthing fees in a place like Ibiza in the middle

of summers. It’s nuts. It’s crazy money.
Monique: So when there’s people that have a boat here in the Caribbean then how much? Andrew: The money is phenomenal yeah pretty much.

Monique: I would lose count of the zeros.

Andrew: Yeah you’d lose count of the zeros. It’s nuts.

Monique: So how many people in your team is it just you?

Andrew: In Malta we are two plus the accounts plus we also use a lot of the infrastructure at Salvo Grima which helps.

Monique: It’s a huge company as well.

Andrew: Exactly. So we got drivers, bands, trucks, fridges, locks, stock and barrel.

Monique: Ah, lock, stock and barrel. [Laughs]

Andrew: So we’ve also got three people in my account of which one of them travels bi weekly or weekly to Barcelona.

Monique: Okay.
Andrew: And then we got storage in Barcelona but that’s not manned by us, we outsourced the

storage.
Monique: And where are the other big hubs?

Andrew: Funny enough, France. Most provisioning companies start off in France. They start off in either Caen or Antibes or Monaco, they’re the real French hubs.

Monique: So are you planning to open a unit in another country perhaps?

Andrew: Yes, we’re looking at that. At the moment, we’re looking at which countries would be most successful seeing maybe the trend of next year, trend of three years time or five years time. So what’s happening is that France has been a hub for several years but it kind of plateaued a bit

and then Majorca seems to have taken over. We were lucky to be one of the first in Majorca. So I would say we’re diplomatically speaking, maybe the second largest wine provision in Majorca, which is quite something.

Monique: It’s quite something.

Andrew: Yeah. This year, the East has really picked up so we’re speaking Turkey, Greece. Cyprus. Yesterday I was discussing with somebody in Turkey to open up in Turkey, nothing concrete yet but very interesting. Customs, duties, not so fun stuff. And then we’ll have to take over.

Monique: And the EU argument as well, I guess.

Andrew: EU argument and the duties on alcohol in Turkey are phenomenally high which is one of the reasons why the yacht then probably provision from say, Majorca to go to Turkey or from Malta or from Italy and then head to Turkey. So we also need to see whether it makes sense actually having stock in Turkey or are they provisioning out of the Turkey and then heading to Turkey. So there’s a lot that we need to look into.

Monique: Yeah it’s cheaper to actually divert the boat to pick up rather than actually pay the duty.

Andrew: It’s a bit like Barcelona. So when we opened in Barcelona, we weren’t sure whether the yacht is in Barcelona or actually provisioning from Barcelona, actually getting their supply from Barcelona or from other marinas. And as it turns out, the provisioning from Barcelona is very limited.

Monique: And what about things like this China Japan type markets do they go down this route?

Andrew: There’s a lot of money there. We keep hoping or expecting the Asian market to take over the yachting industry and really be in full force. Funnily enough, the Asians aren’t sailing as much.

Monique: Okay.

Andrew: So they don’t really like the sea there are a few that charter and being part of the network I hear a lot about what happens when there’s an Asian charter. Many a times they’re not really good at it, they don’t understand or it’s not really in their culture to grasp the concept of sitting down, relaxing, eating, drinking and swimming. They have to DO something. So it’s changing and they’re starting to get into yachting but it takes time.
They are big drinkers and if you want to sell your really really expensive wines, Asia is definitely the place that probably buys most of these wines, whether they’re in the new yachting industry per say still early days. Plus it’s not exactly on our doorstep so there’ll be different but financially it’s a bit challenging.

Monique: With your logistics I think it would be a bit easier to fill a container. [Laughs] Andrew: I wish I had that demand for containers of expensive wine. [Laughs]

Monique: So what do you think is your most popular Rosé for example what was the wine of this year, wine of the year 2018.

Andrew: Wine of 2018 as a rosé, maybe a toss up between Château D’ Esclans Whispering Angel from Château Romassan and Piemonti which is another beautiful Château Romassan. Piemonti which is a lower range and then there is Piemonti Rosé which was our best seller this year.

Monique: Okay. Does that keep winning? Or is that this year’s surprise type of thing?

Andrew: I wouldn’t say it’s a surprise it’s been on the up for the past three or four years. Four years ago up then there was Maravel which is another Château Romassan Rosé which belongs to Brangelina but since the whole splits, our sales of Maravel just plummeted

Monique: Funny yeah.

Andrew: Really yeah I mean from selling pallet loads a year to boxes, cases, literally.

Monique: So do you have to taste the wines or the wine companies targeting the owners who are then filtering down the message to their pursers that they want this wine, or do you recommend? Well, actually, we don’t have this, but there’s this or actually this is a bad year for this, perhaps you should try?

Andrew: Yes, yes, we do recommend especially when we realize so many a time the crew on board don’t really know what they want, or how to approach it, then we give our recommendations. And furthermore, if they wanted within the day, within two days, we don’t have everything in stock. So we can offer an alternative to this Rosé or anything.

Monique: So you really have to know your stuff. It’s not just the delivery service.

Andrew: Absolutely. And then it gets really hard when they want very fine and rare wines which are hard to come across. And they’re very vintage specific, I want 1995 Sasi kaya happened to get that within three days within a week.

Monique: And do you help them with the food pairing with the chef was they are they normally at a level that they know that kind of stuff?

Andrew: We give a lot of training on food pairing. Maybe it’s because I’m a firm believer that wine should be drunk with food, there’s a lot of miscommunication between the chef and the stewardess. It’s two separate departments. The chef decides what they’re eating and stewardess decides what wine to serve or will just ask the guests. Or maybe the stewardess should give her recommendations the chef is cooking chicken with cream tonight for example so I suggest the white bag in the blah blah and it helps to enhance the experience I suppose and then to come back to me. [Laughs]

Monique: Just because we sail but I don’t drink on board I’m one of those I’m bit nervous very nervous

Andrew: You need crew. [Laughs]

Monique: Unfortunately we don’t have a boat that’s quite big enough for crew, but yeah does wine taste different at sea? Is that something you have to consider?

Andrew: I think what do you really need to consider is the temperature, the heat, sun. Would I really go for a very heavy rich I’m our own is invited fully on board at 35 degrees Celsius in the sun? Not so much. which is why the code the performance really moves and Champagne really moves underrated maybe pin Anwar Burgundy which is a lighter red wine those would be fantastic on board.

But there’s also another thing is huge yachts so well air conditioned inside. Monique: They don’t feel like they’re in the sea.

Andrew: They don’t have a problem. It’s funny because it’s the middle of July or August you’re doing the rounds at the marina you’re lurking on the boats and there’s stewardess or purser who walks out in a jacket and you think oh the air conditioning must be full blast inside.

Andrew: And it’s forty two degrees outside.
Monique: Yeah I say I don’t like that much AC but you can imagine if you’re working like that.

Yeah because they didn’t get to sort of sit around and paint their nails.

Andrew: No. It’s a rewarding job as they travel a lot, they see beautiful places they meet a lot of people, they are out at sea it’s a great job but it’s also very demanding. You work pretty much around the clock. Can you imagine for mention Kim Kardashian? So if she goes partying till four o’clock in the morning, you’re not really asleep. You’re waiting for her to come back. Because when she comes back she wants her breakfast, or she wants her late night brunch before bed.

She goes to bed so you have prepared her late night brunch. She goes to bed and her friend wakes up for example at eight in the morning and he wants breakfast because he didn’t go out last night. So you’re up again making breakfast so you are pretty much working around the clock and doing prep.

Monique: So it’s sort of young person’s job.
Andrew: I would say so, I would say so. There are few veterans good at it. It’s very physically

demanding.

Monique: And you said about provisions as well. Do you supply buy food and things that are exotic and luxurious?

Andrew: We do food as part of Salvo Grima, not as part of No.12, So we do anything from crew foods which is bagels and regular food etc. They want healthy food and also the exotic foods which sometimes is a little bit difficult to source in Malta. But if there’s a will there’s a way.

Monique: So how much notice do you get from boats coming in? Because obviously what you said you check the AIS is in the morning.

Andrew: Most of the yachts are very well planned out, then you would get a week or two weeks notice which is good. But it’s not very common. What happens is it’s not the yacht that’s not very professional. It’s the owner that says I will be on board in the middle of July. And then you get an email three weeks before saying Listen I’m coming on board tomorrow. And then you have a problem. And then you need to get all the provisions, the wine, food, whatever it is now yesterday.

Monique: Everything ready ready ready ready.

Andrew: Yes. But for us, that’s good. Because that’s why we have a job. Why are we different to any other wine wholesaler? It’s our level of service. If we’ve had a yacht say Listen, I need that chilled in three hours. What can you do? We get it to them chilled in three hours.

Monique: You have chilled trucks. Chilled chilled chilled. [Laughs] Andrew: Chilled champagne or oysters or whatever. And that’s why we can work be it Saturday,

Sunday, public holidays, Christmas Day. There’s no holiday.
Monique: This is turning out not to be quite a dream job actually. [Laughs] Andrew: Yeah.

Monique: I’ll stick with you being an entrepreneur. But it’s pretty good that Salvo Grima actually enabled. This happened. They didn’t sort of like Oh no, let somebody else do it. They kind of encouraged you to get on with it.

Andrew: Yes very much. We looked at the investments and they said, okay, run with it. I got the support that I needed to run with it. You need quite a bit of support because there’s a lot of investments especially in stocks, wines. So generally speaking, most businesses if I can generalize, have work with stocks. Stock depreciates in value. Wine appreciates in value. So even financially, it’s a bit different and difficult, you’re buying on premier. So I buy Bordeaux wines from 2017, for example. I pay them in 2018. I receive them in 2020- 21. Then I sell them in at least 2025-26.

Monique: It’s really future thinking.

Andrew: Yes so there’s a lot of future thinking and a lot of money tied up.

Monique: Yes but you have to also anticipate the value of that wine.

Andrew: Exactly. So you’ve got to be clever in what you buy. Is it going to appreciate in value? Is it going to be popular in a five years? 10 years time? So you got to know your wine.

Monique: So what do you think is your biggest personal strength? Is it your wine knowledge, your knowledge of the logistics industry? What do you think is most important for your personal role?

Andrew: I think it’s probably my attitude, my character, my can do attitude, maybe my ease of meeting young people. It’s a very young industry. So I had to learn the industry. Let’s start from that. So when I first opened the company, I knew pretty much nothing about yachting. I knew sailing, but that’s racing and it’s totally different. It has absolutely nothing to do with wine.

Monique: Wine on board.

Andrew: Exactly. The only similarity is potent stuff. [Laughs] So I had to learn the industry how it works. And probably I think my history in business has been very varied. I started off in catering school, I went into ITS, tourism studies. And then I did my MBA, so I went into business. My family is foodies foodies. So it’s probably a combination of all my upbringing and all my experiences in one roof.

Monique: Wanting to deliver good service.

Andrew: I think that is probably my biggest strength. So instead of just saying my knowledge on wines, or my knowledge on strategy or business, I can’t really pinpoint, it’s a combination of those.

Monique: Well, you’ve been really interesting to talk to. It’s Andrew Azzopardi of No.12 Fine Wines and Provisions.

Andrew: That’s it.
Monique: Say that after a glass of wine. [Laughs]

Monique: Lovely speaking to the entrepreneur of the week. Thank you. Andrew: Pleasure.