July marked the beginning of a long but necessary process as we set out to resolve the situation for customers affected by the collapse of Cask88, Braeburn, and Whisky Merchants Trading. The formal announcement went live on Wednesday, 9th July, and due to data protection regulations in Singapore, we were unable to contact affected clients for seven days. By 22nd July, we had reached out to all customers with casks purchased and managed by these companies.
The first three weeks have been a steep learning curve. One of the clearest takeaways has been the varying approaches taken by bonded warehouses. Some have been supportive and aligned with our efforts to restore customer ownership. Others prefer to handle matters internally. We have sought permission to share our correspondence with these warehouses to provide transparency, though we have yet to receive formal approval.
To keep things structured, we have implemented a traffic light system for identifying cask status:
- Green: Casks confirmed in warehouse reports under the names of Cask88, Braeburn, or WMT.
- Amber: Casks located but held in the names of third-party suppliers; these require coordination to transfer.
- Red: Casks still unlocated. We are awaiting further data, but with many warehouses on summer shutdown, we expect progress to resume in August.
The first step in this process has been establishing agreements with warehouses so casks can be transferred into individual customer accounts. Although there is no obligation on our part to cover historical fees, we have taken the view that paying these in full is the quickest and most constructive way to ensure clients promptly regain ownership.
At Volpe & Castello, we wrote off all outstanding fees and began issuing Delivery Orders (DOs) for all casks stored in the names of the three collapsed firms on Thursday, 10th July. The figures were as follows:
Braeburn PTE Limited: 2 casks
Cask88 Trading PTE: 291 casks
Whisky Merchants Trading Limited: 498 casks
Total: 791 casks transferred to 531 individual clients.
On 10th July, we also contacted LSS Group to confirm DO processing and notify both suppliers and warehouses of the transfers. We must note that July is a traditional summer shutdown period in the Scotch whisky industry, so progress has been slower than usual. That said, we have had encouraging communication from many warehouses and partners, including:
- Beam Suntory
- Castlelaw
- Craigton Packaging
- Spirited Bond
- JD Spirits
- Ben Nevis Distillery
Timeline of Key Events
9th July
- Administrator’s announcement published.
10th July
- All DOs processed at Volpe & Castello.
- 450 customers contacted.
- 2,146 customers opted in to our support offering.
- 27 customer accounts opened with full KYC completed.
17th July
- Warehouse 1 invoiced £91,804.94 for 2,259 casks – invoice settled in full.
- Supplier 1 reimbursed and facilitated the transfer of 18 casks to V&C. (Kindly covered the cost himself.)
18th July
- Warehouse 2 invoiced £7,268.65 for 84 casks.
- 922 casks transferred to customer ownership.
- £10,000 interest-free loan offered to a client with a bottling brand to help them continue operations.
- 772 client accounts opened since the announcement.
- 3,453 out of 3,690 clients contacted (93.57%) within 9 days.
- 100% opt-in rate from clients engaging with our resolution service.
19th July
- 23 additional DOs processed.
- 94 emails received in our dedicated resolution inbox.
- 2,212 client accounts now open.
Where We Are Now
1,071 casks have been successfully transferred into the names of individual clients to date.
In the second half of the month, our team focused on the specifics of each customer case. We are working on a warehouse-by-warehouse basis, waiting for quotes from hauliers for necessary transfers, and continuing to handle a wide variety of customer requests.
We have not charged any customer for this. We have already spent £110,359.68 during this first month to resolve the situation. The team has gone above and beyond, and we are genuinely proud of what has been achieved in a relatively short time.
By month-end, 100% of affected clients had been contacted. We are now supporting each case individually, recognising that no two customer situations are the same. Many clients wish to transfer casks to alternative warehouses, and we are doing everything we can to accommodate these requests. Looking ahead, clients will receive tailored exit plans depending on their objectives and timeframes – whether 5, 10, or 15 years. Each plan will be designed with the client’s individual goals in mind.
We’ve been heartened by the messages of support received. Many share our vision for rebuilding trust in the market and doing right by those affected – we thank you to all customers for your ongoing support.
The work continues – and we remain fully committed to seeing it through. In August, we aim to reach 3,000 casks transferred to customers. You can check in with us on the next blog post (Monday, 1st September) to see whether we reach this objective.
