Turn your passion into a career

I founded my first company in 1990 — a technology hardware company, right at the beginning of the Internet age. Since then I have run, bought, sold, founded and invested in many companies. As you can imagine, I had enjoyed many good drams of whiskey over those years and began building my personal collection of rare bottles about 30 years ago.

Whiskey galore

Whiskey has always been a hobby — or, in my wife’s words, an obsession. From the first little sip with my dad when I was 18, I was completely amazed by the way it’s made, where it’s stored, the people involved, the stories and of course the taste. When I bought my first bottle almost three decades ago, I never imagined that I would be able to turn my passion into a business and share my love of whiskey with so many enthu­siasts.

Recognize the opportunity

My journey into the barrel trading market felt like a natural progression after years of collecting old and rare bottles. Over the years I have had thousands of bottles in storage and hundreds at home. The turning point came during one of my many visits to Scotland when someone suggested I buy a cask. My first reaction was surprise; I didn’t know it was possible. Ten years ago, most people didn’t know you could buy a barrel. It was a closed market known only to the industry.

After I began curating my barrel portfolio, I encoun­tered several obstacles. Many of the barrels I purchased were not in my name, were not stored in the correct warehouse, and some did not even exist. I spent 12 months sorting out almost 50 barrels.

Having personally fallen victim to a scam, I knew there must be many other whiskey enthu­siasts like me who wanted to collect barrels but had no acces­sible way to do so. The desire to fix this inspired me to make this hobby my life’s focus — creating a trans­parent market­place that anyone can enter with confi­dence.

Building the business

The business plan was simple: do every­thing I wanted for new barrel customers. We set up a regis­tered company in the UK, obtained all the necessary licenses and used the trans­ferable skills of my IT background to develop a computer system to properly catalogue, maintain and manage the casks. This was crucial to starting off on a solid foundation.

I knew from the start that I didn’t want to become a real estate agent because that way you don’t have full control. You must own the stock to review it. In fact, the root cause of my previous problems was brokers selling other people’s stocks. My idea was different. For me, whiskey is more than a commodity that is traded on a sales platform. I wanted to create a market­place where this labor of love benefits everyone in the ecosystem – the distiller, the drinker and the independent bottler alike.

To achieve this, building a team of experts was essential. After immersing myself in the industry, networking came naturally, which made it easier to target people in my network with extensive industry knowledge and experience — people who “speak whiskey.” Crucial, for example, was the expertise of Colin Hampden-White, a Quaich keeper and frequent Whiskey Awards judge, and Lee Tomlinson, a former manager of the legendary Milroy’s of Soho, who had his own networks among independent bottlers and distil­leries in the early days of Cask Trade.

Overcome challenges

In fact, hiring talent of this caliber and track record was crucial to overcoming one of the initial challenges – gaining the trust of Scottish whiskey distil­leries. These distil­leries were rightly skeptical of new entrants as the market was plagued by “here today, gone tomorrow” scammers. From the beginning, I valued integrity and profes­sional expertise. That became our goal. We ensure all casks are stored in HMRC bonded warehouses which are regularly visited and approved by our whiskey masters.

It was important to me that this purpose continued beyond the purchase, so we began offering our customers health checks and tastings of their barrels. This commitment to quality has enabled us to build strong relation­ships with customers and industry partners, not just in the UK but globally, with repre­sen­ta­tives in Australia, Singapore, India, the USA and an office in Hong Kong. Trust and integrity remain at the heart of our campaign to hold to account the fraud­sters who threaten the reputation of the industry we love.

Final thoughts

As I reflect on the journey we have been on over the last six years, my key takeaways are clear: passion, persis­tence and a strong team are key. For aspiring entre­pre­neurs, with dedication and strategic planning, it is possible to turn their passions into businesses. If you have a true love for something, pursue it relent­lessly, and maybe you’ll build a career out of it, like I did with whiskey.