My mission to elevate Irish whiskey’s standing on the world stage has taken two paths. In crafting ultra-rare whiskeys of unsurpassed quality, I’ve aimed to restore the country’s reputation for pure, unblended single malt and single pot still whiskeys. But I also saw that to rise once again, the industry needed investment. Making whiskey is a drain on capital - distillers pour time, effort and cash into the whiskey, only to then wait for roughly 7-10 years before the whiskey is at a stage to be released and they can finally reap any return on their initial outlay.
A win-win-win
This is where Whiskey & Wealth Club comes in. In bridging the gap between distilleries and the investor, we offer access to a privileged world of cask whiskey ownership. We’ve purchased bulk tankers of whiskey from world class distilleries at ultra wholesale rates. We then fill this whiskey into casks, stored in secure government bonded warehouses where the tax is deferred. We fully insure it against theft and damages and place a margin on top. We then sell it to investors or collectors who are happy to sit for 5-10 years or longer while the whiskey’s value appreciates. We then facilitate the buying back of the whiskey to make it a full turnkey, hands-free investment opportunity with great returns.
So it becomes a win-win-win. Distilleries benefit from a cash injection the day the whiskey is made, rather than traditionally waiting 7-10 years. That allows them to invest in their own business or cover overheads. The investor buying the casks from us benefits from an asset that can hedge against volatility in the traditional stock markets, spreading their risk across alternative investments, as documented in our Whiskey & Wealth Club Cask Whiskey Buyer Report 2020. And we benefit from turning a profit that allows us to invest in building The Craft Irish Whiskey Co. and other companies in our portfolio such as Le Portier Cognac or Celosa Tequila.
Over our combined years in the business, my partners and I have built up trusted and strong relationships with distilleries. This has given us an advantage when negotiating reduced wholesale rates for casks. It’s also allowed us to only work with distilleries that we can have full confidence in - established, high-end, and with a history of creating whiskeys that increase in value. Not all casks go up in equal value. Some go up far more than others. Knowing this information and creating these relationships is what makes Whiskey & Wealth Club the leader in the cask whiskey investment business.
Investing in Irish Whiskey
Irish whiskey is on the rise, but demand is predicted to outstrip supply for many years to come. The Irish whiskey market has been growing in double digits annually for the last two decades, and it’s predicted to double again by 2030, making Irish whiskey the fastest growing spirit on earth. But we still have a huge market loss to catch up on. Currently Irish whiskey is only 4% of the global whiskey market. Whereas at the turn of the last century, Irish whiskey was 84% of the global whiskey market! Even if Irish whiskey only gets back 10% of its previous market and grows to 8.4%, that means the current market will more than double in size. Whiskey & Wealth Club offers investors the opportunity to tap into this potential growth.
Compliance
Building an investment company has come with its own challenges, perhaps in part due to that obsessive perfectionism that drives me to create ultra-rare, luxurious whiskeys. The cask whiskey industry isn’t regulated by the FCA, so in theory, we didn’t have to put in place many of the checks and balances that we did. But any company of mine has to be perfect and must be built for the long-term. And so, using the top specialists in the UK, we worked for eight months to attain a WOWGR - one of the licences that a reputable cask investment company should hold. In-person interviews with HMRC, site visits, background information, business plans and multiple applications go into this rigorous process, but it is worth it to be able to offer peace of mind to our clients.
We invested €150,000 to upgrade our office to a fully paperless operation with a custom-built CRM, following regulations that go much further than standard GDPR practices. The whiskey is insured by Aviva plc, one of the world’s largest and most trusted insurance companies. All our distillery partners adhere to HMRC regulations, with regular distillery audits carried out by HMRC, and by ourselves. We welcome clients to join us on tours of the distilleries, where they can see the process and discover the regulations and procedures that keep their investment safe.