Lucy Hargreaves and Mark Dickens are the power couple behind the world’s most opulent wine storage. Running Spiral Cellars from their modern office space situated in suburban Wimbledon, they were both hugely successful in their separate careers before being seduced by wine, buying the business in 2015.
Spiral Cellars designs, crafts and installs a range of cellaring options, from premium wine cellars to beautifully hand-crafted wine rooms. An underground cellar offers storage for up to 1,900 bottles; a boundless space for stylishly tucking away treasured bottles, and Mark’s passion for filling homes with stashes of wine as central design features has resulted in some really rather unexpected creations. Previous projects range from a disused elevator, a broom cupboard and even a little used swimming pool, to an epic underground three-room wine complex.
They are a poster-couple for the joy of a second career, and both huge advocates for the wine industry, that they work to keep simultaneously fun and stylish. Whether it’s a Spiral Cellar for a leading pop star, or a bespoke wine wall for royalty, they’ve seen and installed it all, and this is how they got there.
Lucy graduated in international marketing and cut her teeth in marketing for the construction industry, before starting her own agency in 1996, The Creative Department, based in London – a successful integrated marketing agency which she ran for eight years.
Mark graduated in both mechanical engineering and product design, with a postgraduate MA from Brunel University, and began his adult life as a rock bass player-turned-gamekeeper-turned-designer. He gigged with 80’s rock legends and studied art with Damien Hirst before doing a 180 and spending 20 years in retail consulting. He is perhaps best known for his work for Tesco from 1996-2008, including the 2001 Tesco rebranding, introducing “Every little helps”.
Managing director Lucy bought Spiral Cellars Ltd. in 2004 along with two partner directors, and in August 2015 took full ownership along with Mark, now creative director, buying out her previous business partners. Mark decided to begin offering customers bespoke designed wine rooms and wine walls, to complement the Spiral Cellars’ range of excavated wine cellars. The couple have gone on to transform Spiral Cellars from what was previously known as a manufacturing brand, to what is now an aspirational lifestyle choice.
A desirable wine cellar is something we can all aspire to, but it’s no longer just wine lovers who are investing in high-end storage for their growing collection. From A-List actors and sporting superstars to leading interior designers, lawyers, doctors and city types, bespoke wine cellars have quickly become a luxury interior must-have, proving that you don’t need to be a wine buff to care about how you store your bottles.
Lucy, the wonder woman behind the perfect cellar experience, said: “The way we see it, a spiral cellar is an investment that you will not ever regret, providing a solution to wine storage that will both boost aesthetic quality as well as practicality in your home.”
Lucy and Mark’s vision for the business has seen a clear injection of luxury and consumer awareness, introducing the notion that owning a spiral cellar is a way of life and not simply an object to be purchased. Under their ownership, Spiral Cellars has developed significantly in understanding their clients, with the cellars now regarded as an object of desire across a variety of demographics, from the interior savvy young women to the middle age wine fanatics.
Using highly successful brand-building and distribution partnerships, the business has enjoyed rapid growth over the past sixteen years, increasing turnover more than six-fold, employing over 50 people and building over 200 cellars every year ranging from £24,550 kits to £500,000 custom installations.
So, what’s behind the success of Spiral Cellars’ breath-taking designs? As a wine collector himself, Mark puts it down to “a love of wine, an understanding of a collector’s needs, and fresh, out of the box thinking, however of course, the most important factor of all is discretion, and confidentiality”.
Lucy and Mark are huge wine enthusiasts and hold a WSET Level 2 qualification. Mark has also worked as a retail commentator in the broadsheets and for BBC radio 5 live ‘Wake up to Money’, whilst Lucy is a talented interior designer, and has refurbished no fewer than eight properties, and written two cookbooks.
Spiral Cellars’ range can be viewed online at spiralcellars.com.
