The history of Irish whiskey and Scotch is inextricably linked with enjoyment and wealth. Whiskey & Wealth Club was founded on a simple idea: to share this enjoyment and the potential rewards of wholesale cask whiskey ownership with clients from around the world. Founded in 2018 and driven by the passion of three friends — Jay Bradley, William Fielding and Scott Sciberras — the business has thrived. Scott’s innovative and inspiring leadership has seen him recognised as CEO of the Year, 2020 by ourselves here at CEO Monthly.
Whiskey & Wealth Club was born from a single idea: to share both returns and enjoyment from cask whiskey ownership, while supporting the growth of the Irish and Scottish whisky industries. Bringing this to fruition has called on the considerable skills of the three founders, Jay Bradley, William Fielding, and its CEO Scott Sciberras.
The opportunity stems from the whiskey making process. Initially, newly-made whiskey is simply a cost to distilleries as it needs to sit in casks for at least three years before it can legally be called whiskey. Even after it has earned the name, the liquid also typically needs to mature for at least five to eight years for it to gain flavour. It’s a highly resource-intensive process that initially draws no income. Distilleries have typically approached this challenge using two levers: borrowing and wholesale selling. The former carries its own costs, whilst the latter is where Whiskey & Wealth Club steps in.
Challenges have been plentiful, but Scott’s passion, commitment and sheer hard graft has seen the rapidly growing company take on all tribulations — and win. One of Scott’s most important leadership achievements has been the ability to harness and focus the combined expertise of the three founders — built from a plethora of experience in the sales, finance and drinks industries — to now offer buyers the complete package of cask whiskey ownership.
Creating the Whiskey & Wealth Club family has been contingent upon forging trusted relationships with some of Ireland and Scotland’s finest distilleries to purchase premium new make cask spirit at heavily discounted rates — securing exclusive runs with distilleries. Leveraging its economies of scale, the club negotiates secure government bonded storage, comprehensive insurance; and has gained mastery of the complexity of multiple revenue jurisdictions, including the UK and Ireland, to ensure a tax compliant model.
Alongside the excellence and exclusivity of the spirit that Whiskey & Wealth Club offers to its buyers, Scott has carefully selected and nurtured an unrivalled team of wealth advisers who are trained to provide guidance on wealth strategies tailored precisely to each member’s specific needs. It’s a key differentiator.
Today, the team has grown to encompass 35 highly skilled industry professionals — and Whiskey & Wealth Club prides itself on attracting the best and the brightest to provide the highest quality services for its members. From its founders, to its wealth advisors, to the creatives and the office managers, Whiskey & Wealth Club is built on experience, enthusiasm and excellence.
It has proven to be an attractive and innovative business model: with the company doubling its target to hit €10 million in sales revenue in the first full year in 2019. It is now on track to reach €20 million in 2020.
However, the focus of CEO Monthly is on those individuals at the very top of the business who make the decisions and guide their businesses through some of the most successful periods. That is Scott Sciberras, and the exceptionality of his leadership seemingly knows no bounds.
An entrepreneur and investment industry stalwart, Scott has been the proud CEO of Whiskey & Wealth Club since November 2018. Alongside his co-founders, Scott has been opening the world of cask whiskey investment to private investors with resounding success. It is an exciting time, as for many years it was only distillers and blenders who benefitted from returns on whiskey maturation. However, Whiskey & Wealth Club is changing that, so that investors can now own a part of this tradition. What the club offers is premium new-make whiskey from Irish and Scottish distilleries to private investors at wholesale rates. Scott has worked in drinks, financial services, telecommunications and events. Using his experience to refine the business model and offer a personalised customer experience which has resulted in over 92% of people leaving five-star Trustpilot reviews.
Providing such a high level of excellence to private investors does not just happen overnight, and that is why Scott takes such great pride in the fact that Whiskey & Wealth Club has built trusted relationships with well-known distilleries, allowing access to newly-made whiskey as a substantial discount. By taking advantage of this wholesale pricing, combined with its economies of scale, Scott and the team at Whiskey & Wealth Club are able to pass this amazing opportunity on to clients.
Although cask whiskey investment is not currently regulated by a financial authority Scott has gone above and beyond to ensure that Whiskey & Wealth Club adhere to a higher level of compliance than they are required to. Putting in processes to meet Financial Conduct Authority standards and protect their clients. HMRC regulations are another obstacle to overcome when it comes to making sure their clients are protected in the whiskey space. This year Scott and the team worked hard to meet strict HMRC regulation alongside the distilleries using customs approved software to track cask ownership. Under his leadership Whiskey & Wealth Club also became the first alternative investment company to offer whiskey into the self-administered pension schemes.
As CEO, Scott drives the company’s overall strategy and growth. He also leads the recruitment, training and development of the highly motivated sales team, Scott strives to exceed sales targets as well as improve the company’s productivity and performance. As a leader himself, Scott is also keen to oversee and assure the training of highly motivated performance-focused leaders, and well as creating and implementing the organisation’s vision and mission whilst finally implementing more environmentally-friendly business practices.
Ultimately, Scott is more than just a CEO or whiskey aficionado. He is the perfect blend of both. Finished off with a burning desire to bring the opportunity to open up the whiskey investment market. Scott and the team at Whiskey & Wealth Club are not only opening up the market for investors but also injecting capital back into the Irish and Scotch market. Fuelling the production of world renowned whiskey to meet the ever growing global demand.
