You’d expect the chief custodian of Britain’s most venerable fragrance house to be rather grand – someone with an aristocratic lineage, a plummy accent and a penchant for adhering to protocol.

The woman sitting across the table from me outside a cafe in Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building is nothing of the sort. Julia Koeppen, the global general manager of royal warrant holder Penhaligon’s, is from northwest Germany rather than the UK, her manner is disarmingly casual and enthusiastic, and she keeps divulging information that’s strictly under embargo – much to the exasperated bemusement of the house’s communications director.