Adrian Bridge, seeding the future

Adrian Bridge, Quinta da Pedra (Alto Minho)

“It’s important Portugal has the confidence to believe it can be world class,” Adrian Bridge, CEO, The Fladgate Partnership

When I first visited Porto in 2008, the city was in such a state of disrepair buildings were almost falling into the street. I recently met with Adrian Bridge, influential pioneer of luxury tourism in Porto and, as CEO of The Fladgate Partnership, the man behind the 2010 opening of The Yeatman hotel.

“At the time, many people told me ‘The Yeatman can’t be done’,” Bridge recalls (it was the height of the Great Recession and Portugal had been particularly badly hit). “In fact, it has put Porto on the map. Confidence has driven change and the city is transformed.” The Yeatman, today an icon of Porto, won The World of Fine Wine’s ‘Best Regional Wine List in Europe’ 2024 Award.

A mountaineer in his spare time, Bridge visibly enjoys challenges some might balk at.

“Tourism can have a very profound impact on Portugal’s development. It’s 16% of GDP, with the potential to be more. We’ve got so many touch points in this country for discovery and engagement. Geographically quite small, we’re wonderfully diverse, a nation of welcoming, hospitable people. Most people in Portugal speak English, a major strategic advantage.

“It’s important Portugal has the confidence to believe it can be world class.”

The company Bridge joined in 1994 was relatively small. After Bridge’s 24 years at the helm, it’s now tenfold larger, with a portfolio that includes one third of the premium Port market, still and sparkling wines, luxury hotels, tourism and retail.

“When I arrived, Portugal was still in the old thinking, under the shadow of Salazar, a little country isolated on the edge of Europe. In the last 20 years, Portugal has become very much part of Europe. The education system has created the professions and enabled people to take control of their lives and better their prospects.”

Where does Portugal stand today? “Government’s job is to improve infrastructure and education. We need an educated workforce, competent in foreign languages and motivated. We need a policy to make sure people are fully employed and productive. Then we’ll be spending less on support and the government will have more money to spend on its capital budget rather than its operating budget. This is when governments start to spend on infrastructure and education.”

Croft – Quinta da Roêda – Visitors’ Centre

With major geopolitical tensions worldwide, Bridge comments that no business is easy at the moment. “We’re a luxury item. Port and wine aren’t necessities, and Port is having a bit of a tough time. I think travel now post-Covid has become a necessity. We’ve got to accept the opportunity is for more premiumization. If we premiumize and sell with margin, we have money to reinvest in the future.”

The grapes for making Port are grown in the Douro, an opportunity in recent years to open this incredibly beautiful mountain vineyard to wine tourism. “If tourism is coming to the Douro, we’re going to create more jobs. If we can keep the most talented here in Portugal, we can be much stronger and create a dynamic cycle. If you encourage people to be more optimistic about their future, they’ll start to spend money. Movement of people and ideas is super positive and one of the biggest things Britain lost with Brexit. Let’s bring the best and brightest to our universities!”

As a wine producer, Adrian Bridge has long been aware of the impact of climate change on agricultural activity. In 2018, deciding to convert concern into action, he founded The Porto Protocol, a non-profit organization under the aegis of Taylor’s Port. “Most people know it’s a miserable planet at the moment. I don’t think doing nothing is an option. I strongly believe we’re all part of the problem and all part of the solution. The biggest danger on climate change is the sense that somebody else is going to fix it.

The Yeatman hotel, Porto

“With member companies in 20 countries throughout the world actively communicating and sharing actionable best practices, Porto Protocol is a contributor in an industry that, in global terms, is relatively small but which punches above its weight because it’s the only branded agriculture business in the world and we talk to our consumers.”

In April this year, construction work will begin in Porto on the Bearsley, Portugal’s first carbon neutral hotel and another Fladgate project. “If we’re really serious about achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 or 2050, we need to make sure we’re writing the rules for the future and not relying on what was done in the past. We have to get much quicker in writing our regulations.”

I ask Bridge, now 61, how he envisages the next decade. Is there perhaps a family member waiting in the wings? “Family succession is powerful, but, at the same time, you have to be extremely careful not to put undue pressure on those coming up behind. Everyone’s different and they might want to do something else. There’s responsibility to give a vision of the future and to encourage people to grab it; that’s how businesses keep going, but also why businesses are more than one individual, why theoretically businesses don’t have a lifespan.

“Post Covid, there’s been a load of business challenges: all the hotels shut down and then reopened, new businesses, wars, tariffs, inflation… However, there are so many opportunities in Portugal, in tourism, distribution, wine, hotels… We’ve just bought this company Ideal Drinks. The wines have immense potential, but they need a bit more investment in the wineries and vineyard. That’s the nature of the wine business. It doesn’t happen overnight.”

And how about World of Wine, the imposing cultural district daringly launched in Porto between two pandemic lockdowns? “Delivering the success of WoW is incumbent upon me. We need more visitors and this requires notoriety, which takes time.” One compelling reason to visit is the Bridge Collection of drinking vessels, a personal passion.

Bridge muses about the day when it might be possible to slow the pace a bit. “There are many things I’ve never done that would be fun to do. I’ve travelled a lot and once the travel genie is out… but there are so many more places I’ve never been to. It would be amazing to travel the old Silk Road and see those early cultures. I read and I’m picking up my photography again… it’d be good to learn to cook more too…”

First published Portugal Resident, 'Portugal Forward', February 2025