A new digital platform designed to make it easier for Scotch whisky distillers to manage their production and maturation operations is quickly winning favour at home and abroad.
Vapour, which was co-founded in the distilling heartland of Speyside by digital expert Stephen Hamilton, is credited with helping companies such as BrewDog Distilling in Aberdeenshire and Lochlea Distillery in Ayrshire to track the entire lifecycle of their processes, from raw material intake to cask maturation and beyond, with a mobile device.
By capturing data at every stage of the production and maturation process, the platform is said to create a comprehensive record of provenance. It allows distillers to monitor quality, track changes, and gain valuable insights into the journey of their spirits, with traceability built in from the moment it is used, the firm said.
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The system, which has been developed with input from the industry, is now being used by producers across Europe and Australia, in addition to its homeland.
Customers in Scotland include Duncan Taylor Scotch Whisky, Scotch Whisky Investments, Still Spirit and Caley Casks, while outside Scotland the firm works with the Lakes Distillery in England, Kangaroo Island Spirits and Coopers Brewery Distillery in Australia, and Feddie Ocean Distillery in Norway.
Mr Hamilton, who co-founded the company in 2018, said: “We have developed Vapour in collaboration with leading industry experts, ensuring that the platform addresses the specific operational challenges of running a distillery or maturing and bottling spirit. A key aspect of our philosophy is that we do not ask you to do anything different than you do today – it is as simple as recording your existing activities in Vapour.
"We are proud to say that in just a few short years since launching, we now have customers as far afield as Australia using Vapour, and our customer base across Europe has expanded significantly too. The nature of the product means it is extremely quick to set up for customers anywhere in the world and can be done remotely from our base in Scotland.
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“It is not just a digital record, we are digitising operations within distilleries and in turn giving them scalable, efficient and detailed support at every stage of production. It is fantastic to have clients like BrewDog Distilling, Lochlea Distillery and Scotch Whisky Investments on board who we have worked with to enhance and craft the platform to meet the needs of our clients.
“We have also developed important industry partnerships [with firms] such as Clyde Associated Engineers, a major supplier for fluid handling businesses like our distillery and maturation customers, to automate and digitise data capture on the distillery or warehouse floor.
“As is the nature of the product, we can easily adapt and add new functionality to Vapour based on feedback from our customers. We are in the relatively early stages of bringing Vapour to the world, but we feel hugely optimistic about the future.”
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Vapour said it offers a flexible pricing model which can be tailored to the needs of different businesses, noting that this helps to make it accessible and cost-effective.
John Campbell, production director at Lochlea and a former distillery manager at Laphroaig on Islay, said: “Having previous experience of the traditional technology used in large volume spirit producers, I was immediately impressed with the Vapour platform from day one with how easy it has been to use and embed into our processes in the distillery.
"The fact that Vapour is a digital platform means that wherever I am in the world, I can have an instant overview of what’s happening at the distillery across production, maturation, and soon our bottling processes. Our inventory management and traceability have never been as good as they are now. The depth of utility and flexibility offered by Vapour is ideal for us and I’m sure many other spirits businesses.”
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