On Friday 2nd May 2025 Stephen Hunt was appointed by the Board of Directors as Administrator of Whisky Merchants Trading Limited of Castle Street, Edinburgh.

The company is the UK service company for Braeburn Whisky and Cask 88.  These other companies are not in an insolvency process.

Stephen Hunt said: “I have been appointed to review the position of the Company and being in Administration gives the Company protection while I go about my work.  I have had meetings with the Directors and they and their staff have been helpful in assisting me with reviewing the finances of the business. Some staff have been let go but I have retained some to assist me.

I expect this work to continue throughout the next week and then I will release more information.

Whilst my agents are reviewing the stock held in the name of the Company at various sites we have become aware that there have already been attempts by others to contact customers and spread false information about the position.  I would urge all customers to ignore these third parties, particularly over the next week.  Nothing will change regarding their casks held in the short term and customer should not be concerned by this Company moving into Administration.

I am aware of recent TV reports of fraud in the Whisky sector and can confirm that none of the conduct in those programmes has been reported to me regarding this Company.  I am aware that part of the recent BBC programme also warned customers of “sharks circling” and I am afraid to say that I have seen that in the first 24 hours of my appointment. It is now apparent that the customer list has been obtained by third parties.  The Company has made no arrangements with ‘fosterwhisky.co.uk’, ‘Volpe and Castello’, ‘Edinburgh Cask Management’ and ‘Braeburn Rescue Team’ and customers should not deal with them.  If I am made aware of other attempts to contact the customer bases then I shall post their details in further releases.   A report on the potential misuse of personal data will be filed with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

We have set up a dedicated email address for creditors to contact me and my team.  It is wmt@griffins.net