Stuart Maxwell, chief working officer at Proof 8, advises on the right way to utilise the most recent tech to spice up enterprise and create extra environment friendly, clear methods of working.
“It’s robust for lots of people on the market simply now,” famous Stuart Maxwell, chief working officer at know-how firm Proof 8. “We work with fairly all kinds of various spirits companies and fairly a couple of individuals are struggling on the market simply now.
“For us [at Proof 8], it’s been fairly good. We’ve expanded massively, we’ve simply moved into the US market fairly efficiently. We simply took on our first distillery buyer in South Africa, and we’ve simply recruited a few distillers in Australia as nicely.”
Proof 8 is a listing administration platform that works to digitalise “current legacy techniques”, Maxwell defined.
On the most recent episode of The Spirits Enterprise Podcast, Maxwell spends time exploring the event of ‘digital deeds’ and the place he sees alternatives for digital deeds to enhance effectivity, traceability and transparency throughout the whisky trade.
“Our terminology for the digital deeds is successfully a digital supply order,” Maxwell defined.
“What we do on the [Proof 8] platform is that any cask that’s introduced into the system will get assigned a digital ID. We use blockchain applied sciences, however that know-how is changing into way more mainstream nowadays.
“Any cask that’s introduced into the system would get assigned an NFT. That NFT is a novel digital ID for that asset, and that asset’s logged onto the blockchain, which in itself is an untamperable ledger.”
In June 2025, unbiased Irish distillery Ahascragh adopted Proof 8’s digital administration system, which included issuing digital deeds for each cask from the second of filling. In April this yr, Jackton Distillery in Scotland additionally applied Proof 8’s platform to extend cask safety.
The largest advantages for producers and bottlers in adopting Proof 8 know-how and digital deeds, Maxwell believes, include eradicating “human error that may occur on website”.
Along with firm effectivity, he additionally famous the business advantages of constructing extra clear and traceable companies.
“You probably have a greater system, you get entry to higher financing for the spirits trade based mostly on the belongings you have got in inventory,” Maxwell mentioned. “You probably have stable knowledge and you’ll definitively say, ‘That is the place all the things is’, and so forth and so forth, then you definitely sometimes get extra confidence [from the financier]. With regards to audits as nicely, that could be a enormous bonus to have all of your knowledge in a single place.
“We now have the power to create customized reviews on the platform, each with the type of grasp knowledge, if it have been, and likewise the power to create customized reviews for duties.
“So these are two main business advantages: the higher entry to finance, after which the audit-ready customary they’ll have on their website.”
Listeners can entry the most recent episode with Proof 8 on all main streaming platforms, together with Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music, or without cost by way of Acast and the hyperlink under.
Final month, Matthew J Benny, chief business officer for the Americas at Creamy Creation, featured on the podcast to debunk some frequent misconceptions about cream liqueurs and share insights into what it’s like being a B2B developer and producer.
Alexandre Gabriel, founder and grasp blender at Maison Ferrand, was additionally a latest visitor, who went into element about what it was wish to rename his international rum model, now often known as Planteray, and the explanations behind that call.
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