Profiles

The Hennessy men

Hens

Maurice Hennessy (right) and his nephew Roch Hennessy toast during the 200 year anniversary of Hennessy V.S.O.P held at a colourful event at Sankara Hotel on April 11, 2018. Photo | Francis Nderitu | NMG

Two ‘Hennessies’ sit at second floor atrium of Sankara Nairobi. The older one is Maurice Hennessy; studied agriculture at university in Paris, then spent some time in West Africa. He’s jet-set, flying the Hennessy flag high, hopping on and off planes to further the agenda of his great grandfather who founded the drink in 1765.

He’s self-assured and owns his space as only the patriarch should be. Seated opposite him, in a better tailored suit, under the shadow of his reverence is his nephew— Roch Hennessy.

He’s the business development manager for the Chinese market. He’s the face of the future; fresh-faced, bushy tailed and with the business language of the next frontier.

Together they are the eighth generation Hennessy and will be taking the mantle to steer the brand into greater markets. They were in town to celebrate 200 years of Hennessy VSOP. They met JACKSON BIKO for a chat.

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So how does it feel to have your last name as Hennessy, the name of a famous cognac?

Maurice: (Laughing) Well, you know everybody has a name. We both are eighth generation, but everybody is eighth generation of somebody. The only difference is that we know where our eighth generations are buried, when they were born and when they died. But they had a life like your family.

Roch: For me this boils down to two things; pride and responsibility. Pride because we are proud of the heritage, this is something that was founded 250 years ago, so there is a rich history there. Responsibility because we need to carry it forward, there is a great story here that should outlive us.

Is there anything in your socialisation that indicated that you were being groomed to run the business?

Maurice: Neither of us was forced to get in but I can say that I was brought up by a grandfather and my father who were very proud. As a child, I was not pushed to join Hennessy. In fact, my father was a nuclear scientist and I studied farming. I was not really groomed to be a marketing guy, but there was always this tradition of continuity and pride. So, this is the way we were groomed. We had to learn English because English is the language for business.

Roch: I can’t remember the first time I made the connection between my name and the house. It was always there. I remember going to Cognac because that’s, like Maurice says, where our family is from and we kept properties there. As a boy I was making the association between my name and the vineyards around and the distillery next to it, the ageing barrels and the smell in the air. So it was always part of me. Being a Hennessy was something that came completely naturally, something you always embodied deep inside you.

Does the name come with certain expectations? Socially? Forget even in business.

Maurice: I think many people expect us to have a certain way. There is no particular way we are expected to do. We are not bickering or pretentious people, we are not horrible. But as a Hennessy we try and behave in ways that the generation of Hennessy has behaved in the past 200 years and who have carried its name and brought it to its success.

Roch: We work with such a wonderful product that brings happiness and pleasure and we are very lucky and very fortunate to have it. There are values we share together but, of course, being a Hennessy has a bit of light focused on us but what we do would not be possible without all the people behind it in the market, in the vineyard picking the grapes. And cognac is like a noble spirit, it’s a complex spirit.

When I think of Hennessy, I think of Nigerians buying bottles and bottles of it. Why do you think that they’ve embraced it so much?

Maurice: South Africa and Nigeria are top two markets in Africa for Hennessy. Kenya is number three — you are not doing badly at all. I was in Nigeria promoting Hennessy before the invention of rap music, we were sold by Guinness. That was a long time ago—before your birth. (Giggles) Or you were very young.

Roch: In the US, the brand has been popular with African-Americans for 60 years or so. In fact, our distributor in the US was the first company to have an African-American vice president. Our grandfather stood firmly in promoting the minorities in business but for social reasons not even commercially. Rap music found us and then embraced us.

Tell us something interesting that most people really don’t know about Hennessy.

Maurice. Hennessy was started by an Irishman, a Catholic, had problems in Ireland, joined the armies of the King Louis the 15th of France, and started a farm. So yes, Hennessy is the only cognac farm started by an army officer.

Roch: The French market only represents one per cent of the Hennessy cognac consumption— 99 per cent is exported outside of France. We are also the first brand to be present on five continents.