A conversation with The Foundry Vault - the importance of transparency, traceability and trust in maturation

Faced with growing compliance demands and bound by the constraints of Excel, 

, the UK’s largest Irish Whiskey maturation facility, needed support with three crucial elements of their business - transparency, traceability and trust. They were looking to move away from the headache of manually managing cask data, and all the inaccuracies and risks that brought. They wanted to digitalise their entire operation and prepare for growth as they increased their warehouse capacity.

Their wishlist for a technology partner? A solid understanding of the complexities of third-party maturation and the evolving regulatory landscape they operate in. Plus, a 

 that was, above all else, easy-to-use and intuitive for everyday workflows. They wanted the move to digital to be smooth.

Our Proof 8 platform has been built hand-in-hand with distilleries and warehouses and caters to their exact needs. Digitalisation starts the minute a cask enters the warehouse. At that moment, the cask is given a unique digital identity (Digital Deed), an immutable, secure record of a cask’s history stored on a private blockchain database. If the cask comes from a distillery or producer using Proof 8, the cask is simply ‘scanned in’ and includes all the rich data associated - from the origins of ingredients and materials, to the craft that goes into production, through to the location in the warehouse, and crucially the ownership of the cask - who the beneficial owner is. All data is available immediately on the Proof 8 platform.

Jacqui Hanna, Co-Director and Warehousekeeper at Foundry Vault, says, “Warehousing and purchasing whiskey can be a very blind process. We needed greater transparency across every element of our operation as well as complete assurance that the data we held on every cask was correct. Proof 8 enables this incredible insight into the production, movement and ownership of casks and allows us to track how we store and treat them during their time with us. This is crucial with 

Here’s Foundry Vault’s unique story, told by Jacqui and her formidable team. Watch the video or enjoy the full conversation below.

Q: What challenges drove you to change the way you operate?

Third-party maturation is a very young business, and it’s ever changing. The challenges we face today are more complex than ever. We sit at the intersection of tradition and progress. As warehousekeepers, we are liable to take all the risk and responsibility in storing casks for the duration of their time with us. We need to facilitate the smooth day-to-day running of our operations, account for every single cask, whilst protecting ourselves in the process. We need 100% confidence that the data we hold on every asset is accurate and up-to-date, and that we can access that data quickly, when needed.

Increased compliance demands and regulatory changes like WOWGR reform, have put a much greater focus on the importance of data integrity, meaning we have to uphold meticulous record-keeping and produce near-instant reporting to HMRC. There’s no room for error, and 

 left us vulnerable. If we were still fully reliant on spreadsheets or had old legacy systems at play to manage cask data, I’d be worried right now.

Staying compliant means balancing precision with efficiency. With barrels moving constantly between warehouses and distilleries, we were finding that manual systems were slowing everything down. We were only getting half of the data from distilleries when we processed barrels on arrival. Data wasn’t standardised in the same format and this was causing delays and extra time to rectify. We wanted to streamline our operations, and deliver more transparency, all without sacrificing the craftsmanship that goes into producing and storing Irish Whiskey.

We could also clearly see that things were changing in cask ownership. Traceability was now non-negotiable. Title deed holders and brokers were demanding complete assurance about the casks we stored: their provenance, current status, ownership details and location. Paper-based certificates are no longer acceptable. People rightly demand robust proof of ownership and we needed a system to provide this.

Q: How did the warehouse operate before Proof 8?

Previously, when we would receive stock into our warehouse, we would have logged everything manually on spreadsheets. But spreadsheets are vulnerable and prone to error. For a short period of time, this was fine, but as we expanded, and the number of barrels we stored grew, so did the volume of cask data. We’re a relatively small team and this approach wasn’t scalable. We were finding we were getting bogged down with admin and we wanted to enable our team to focus on other things, as opposed to admin.

Q: How do you use Proof 8 in day-to-day tasks?

Our work starts in processing barrels the minute they arrive with us using the Proof 8 platform to assign each cask a digital identity (ID) with associated QR code. This provides a permanent record of the key data associated with each item. Everything from its origin, age, ownership, ABV to location in the warehouse. Every crucial piece of information is collected, stored and tracked on the platform throughout the asset's entire lifetime. Data is recorded on the blockchain and provides an audit trail for anyone involved to see.

For cask owners, this means they are issued with a 'Digital Deed' that proves ownership of their cask, as well as detailing its provenance and location - there can no longer be any doubt that what they have bought is held with us. Managing agents have full transparency of their stocks at any time reducing requests to warehouses for updates on impending spreadsheets, monthly data records and changes in deed holders. Finally, HMRC has the assurance that the audit trail is locked on blockchain and all data we hold is fully up to date.

Q: What are some of the benefits of the platform?

The ease of it. Proof 8 is very user-friendly.

It follows workflows we’re all familiar with to make day-to-day tasks much simpler. Everyone in the warehouse can use it, as well as anyone in accounts to produce reports for HMRC. At the click of a button, we can see everything. We don't have to continually check over data like we would have had to in 

When lorries now come into the warehouse with a delivery, within half an hour to an hour we can have all cask data logged and recorded on the 

. All the data is then immediately available for anyone to access.

Proof 8 has allowed us to remove the old certificate system around cask ownership. Especially around change of ownership. Previously when something would sell, we had no way of knowing if the original certificate had been surrendered or if it was still floating around for someone to claim ownership at a later date. Now, because of Proof 8, we have full visibility of that Digital Deed being transferred to the new owner. This is incredibly important to us as the warehouse storing the asset, but also the cask owner and for audit purposes for HMRC.

Really simply, Proof 8 has revolutionised our approach to warehouse management and maturation, making compliance easier and operations more efficient and transparent.

Find out more about our partnership with Foundry Vault and how they implemented our 

distillery and warehouse management solution

 where we’ll be sharing more digital transformation stories.

“We prioritised data accuracy, operational integrity and customer trust by underpinning our entire operation with Proof 8. The transformation has been swift and game-changing.” Jacqui Hanna, Warehousekeeper, The Foundry Vault

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The Foundry Vault’s digital transformation

The Foundry Vault’s digital transformation

More from Proof 8

Platform

Marketplace

Connected Products Coming soon

About

Team

Careers

The Foundry Vault’s digital transformation

More from Proof 8

Getting started with Digital Deeds

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Digital Deeds: The Answer to Cask Ownership Fraud

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