The boss of a whisky company with hopes of opening a distillery in Stirling has hit back at “keyboard warriors” who he says unfairly criticised him and his business.
Wolfcraig Distillers came under fire in October when two of its customers shared their concerns with The Courier about the provenance of casks they had each spent around £5,000 on.
But Jamie Lunn, co-founder and director of the brand, told The Courier: “I do believe what we’re doing is positive.
“I know, obviously, off the back of the story, you get a lot of the kind of keyboard warriors that come on and post things about you and call you Ponzi schemes and scam artists.
“It’s nothing to do with that, people just read between the lines.
“We’re certainly not a Ponzi scheme.
“We’ve been completely open and honest with people about what we’re doing.
“And, listen, I’ve got nothing to hide. I’ve always said that.”
Wolfcraig has ‘sorted it all out’ with unhappy customers
Wolfcraig Distillers had plans to open a distillery and visitor centre at Stirling’s Craigforth campus.
But the firm was unable to secure council planning permission.
Then, in September this year, the whisky company informed customers that their casks would be filled at an unnamed Highland distillery rather than one in Stirling.
Investors Howard Downey and Iain Smith expressed their disappointment with this outcome.
In October, Mr Downey told The Courier the “lack of provenance” was “unacceptable”.
He claimed Wolfcraig was not honouring its commitment to customers, giving them no choice but to accept “unbranded” whisky.
Mr Smith added: “My fear is loss of value in a cask for all, as there will be no provenance associated with the cask – a cask that a person has bought at a premium price due to provenance.”
But Mr Lunn claims the two men were the only Wolfcraig cask-buyers who raised concerns.
“We had conversations with them; sorted it all out,” he said.
“We understand each other’s positions.”
The Wolfcraig investors who spoke to The Courier lashed out at the whisky firm for poor communication.
In October, Mr Downey called the company’s lack of engagement “arrogant”.
But Mr Lunn said: “I can understand a couple of people if they thought the communication wasn’t good enough.
“We’ve got over 1,000 members that we try to keep on top of and, unfortunately, sometimes we don’t.
“But it’s a lot of people to deal with.”
‘No negativity’ from majority of cask-buyers
When Wolfcraig’s casks went on sale, a maximum of 1,000 were advertised.
According to Mr Lunn, the company didn’t sell “anywhere near” that number.
“Obviously, people were doing their own maths and working out things and, obviously, it attracted a lot of negative press,” he says.
But, despite online criticism, Mr Lunn insists his customers are happy.
“There’s been no negativity around it,” said the founder.
“We’re still trying to grow a brand and we’re still working away in the background on the distillery.
“So, yeah, we’re just trying to push forward.”
Cask-filling reportedly on track
The whisky boss says his company is on track to fill all of its casks by the end of the year, as promised, and filling is underway.
“At the moment, we’re going well – getting through it,” he said.
“I can’t give too much information away just now because I’m about to get another email out to our members this week and next week, just with more updates.
“We’ve still got plans, but I’ve just got a few things to sort out and deal with, the casks being priority at the moment.
“And then, in the new year, we’ll look forward and we’ll continue to grow the memberships.”
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