Upcoming changes to custody fees

From 1st December, we will be increasing the cost of storage from £0.15 per LPA per annum to £0.175 per LPA per annum. Below, we explain our reasons for the increase and why we think ownership of maturing Scotch remains a compelling proposition.

As you know, the monthly storage fees represent the cost of storing and insuring the maturing whisky you own. We are charged by our warehouse partners for the storage of your whisky, and we pass this cost on to you in the form of these fees.

When we first launched the platform in 2015, we set these fees at £0.15 per LPA per annum. We felt, and still feel, that this represented excellent value to customers, and was very close to trade cost.

For the last 6 years, although warehouse and insurance costs have risen, we have maintained the storage fees at £0.15, and WID itself has absorbed any increase in cost from our suppliers. Unfortunately, we feel it is no longer possible to maintain this approach. Warehouse space in the industry is currently at a premium, and the costs we are charged to store and insure your whisky are increasing. With this in mind, we have taken the tough decision to in turn increase our charges.

This increase represents a rise lower than inflation over the period since the platform launched, however we fully understand that this change will concern many of our customers. As always, we intend to be fully transparent, and we have provided some analysis on how this may affect your investment going forward. As far as we are aware, our storage fees remain the lowest available for investment in casked whisky, and we are committed to maintaining this in the long term.

Regular Investor Reward

The reduced storage cost paid by our Regular Investors will increase in line with this change, to £0.155 per LPA per annum from £0.13. However, anyone who is currently in the middle of their annual Regular Investor Reward period will continue to receive the lower rate of £0.13 for the remainder of that period. For example, if you first qualified for the Regular Investor Reward in Q2 this year (April – June), and you maintain eligibility for the remainder of the period up to March 2022, you will receive a rebate equivalent to paying £0.13 for the full period.

 

If you have any questions regarding this change, please feel free to contact us to discuss.