Hello World!

Welcome to the inaugural Master Distiller blog! First up a huge thank you to all those early adopters, innovators and inquisitive individuals who are on this list and have been part of our journey so far. It’s been a joy to work with you all and we are super excited about the length of journey we’ve still got ahead of us, this post marks the first of many to come as we grow out our solution, our community and our reach in the coming years.

As many of you will already know Master Distiller, is a best in class technology solution for the Distillation industry in it’s widest sense, borne out of experience and hard knocks in the premium Scotch Whisky sector. The solution is capable of dealing with all forms of industry stories, from independent bottlers to large producers with multi-distillery and multi-spirit entities. With the solution being grounded on the Odoo open-source platform it allows the seamless functionality of a full ERP solution, ranging from Purchasing to Production to Maturation to Manufacturing to Sales , as well as accessing the 40,000+ apps available to link in to Odoo – more on the system architecture and raft of modules available in a future blog however.

As part of our first blog as a relaunched company what better place to start than to introduce you to the key members of our small but mighty team. Future blogs in the making will focus in on how MasterDistiller came to be, success stories to date, failures to date, regulatory challenges, ERP v Non-ERP benefits and why the quirks and nuances of the distillation industry can sometimes struggle with off the shelf industry agnostic software packages.

First and definitely foremost is our lead programmer and system developer, Nicholas Holroyd. Nick has a unique combination of skills having worked as a distiller, completed a Masters in Cyber Security & Data Forensics and also worked in an independent bottling and E-Commerce business before taking a deep dive in to creating Master Distiller alongside the team at Raasay Distillery. Nick’s insatiable positive attitude to problem solving and ability to understand Python programming language, Distiller’s never-ending library of acronyms and the key commercial aspects of running a business put him in a unique position to help our partners in everything from implementation setup to day-to-day firefighting!

Our lead project manager Scott Mooney has been part of the wider Raasay family since the beginning, having cut his teeth on installing the infrastructure in the remote Raasay Distillery whilst water was still flowing in freely from the gaps in the ceiling! Not only has Scott led the creation and development of the Master Distiller solution from its inception, he also use to run his own web consulting business, empathising with the challenges many of our partners have in their day to day business. Scott also leads Raasay’s hugely successful eCommerce efforts, managing to keep online sales growing at +10% from even the peak of Covid online shopping! This mix of technical programming knowledge, eCommerce, entrepreneurship and project management makes Scott a hugely valuable asset to any and all of our partners.

Last, and most definitely least, is, well, me! Our resident accountant and Chief Ignorance Officer. With a background across several premium Scottish brands and senior financial leadership, including financial directorship at Raasay Distillery, myself and the team make sure that Master Distiller doesn’t just capture scientific malt analysis or predicted spirit yields but that it’s also fit for purpose for long-term financial planning, sensible data and reporting structures, working capital management, financial reporting and of course, driving revenue and margin improvements!

So that’s us! A mix of financial, strategic, entrepreneurial, programming, eCommerce, reporting and distilling skills all rolled in to one.

Thanks for reading and please do reach out to any of us if you want to chat through distillery systemisation, processes, e-commerce, reporting or if you just fancy a coffee at our offices on 23 Manor Place, Edinburgh.

All the best

The MasterDistiller Team