Digitising The Whisky Industry For Faster, Smarter Growth

In this contributed piece for DIGIT, Stephen Hamilton, co-founder of Scottish tech startup Vapour, explores how the whisky industry can embrace digital transformation while preserving its rich traditions.

The whisky industry, steeped in centuries-old tradition, is now embracing digital transformation to stay competitive in the modern age.

Despite popular belief, technology has a place in almost every industry and spirits are no exception to that. We started Vapour to serve the needs of the warehousing and spirit maturation industry via a cloud-based management platform.

Through market analysis, we uncovered significant shortcomings in existing solutions that were either prohibitively expensive, didn’t provide the level of detail customers look for, or were highly reliant on external consultants.

Our management platform, Vapour integrates with a distillery’s existing workflows by leveraging cloud-based systems that enable real-time tracking of spirit maturation and cask conditions. Operators can monitor data across all stages of production and maturation, providing insights that allow for precise adjustments to optimise efficiency.

Whilst newer distilleries are open to utilising modern resources, many older distillers remain comfortable with more traditional methods, relying on handwritten notes or updating spreadsheets to keep track of the precious information that can make or break a batch.

Despite the vast potential for greater efficiency and innovation, the true challenge lies not in the technology, but in empowering the people on the front line to adopt and embrace the change. Companies can be understandably hesitant to introduce new systems – especially if they’ve chased new tech trends in the past that have caused more problems than solutions, or already sunken resources into a system that’s not quite right.

However, digital transformation doesn’t mean abandoning time-honoured practices. By implementing technology that enhances, rather than replaces existing craftsmanship, we try to help distilleries stay true to their legacy while embracing a future-ready approach.

By implementing data rich and digital specs from the ground up, you’re able to offer affordable, scalable solutions to streamline operations, improve quality control and enhance transparency. This has been quantified by the development of Vapour which allows workers to track production in real time, monitor cask conditions and ensure consistency with minimal investment.

Operators can execute tasks and record the details directly on handheld devices, whether they’re tracking a cask’s maturation process or adjusting its storage conditions. This convenience reduces the need for manual record-keeping and makes it easier for teams to focus on quality control.

The platform executes warehouse tasks in the palm of the operator’s hand to offer the unique story of the product from the provenance of the barley to the conditions under which it was aged. This is something that customers are increasingly keen to hear more about when deciding on their chosen cask investments.

Scotland is poised to be a leader in digital innovation across industries, and by listening to distillers and refining our technology, we can ensure that technology doesn’t replace tradition – it empowers it for smarter, faster growth.