Thank you to everyone for your incredible support and understanding throughout this difficult time. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all of us personally, economically and emotionally. We know you may have questions regarding our auctions and we wanted to address these as best we can in the current circumstances. Please be reassured we will return, and when we do – it will be with the same high quality auction you have come to expect from us.

Q: Why are auctions postponed? 

It’s been asked why we have taken the decision to postpone our auctions as a result of the COVID-19 crisis while other auctions are still running. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, and above all else is the safety of our team, suppliers and customers. Each and every bottle that is bought and sold undertakes a journey with us. When we receive a bottle it’s booked in and checked by our expert handlers. Every bottle is then individually processed through photography with descriptions before making its way into the auction. Throughout the auction we carry on this process for the following month. At auction end our finance department track payments and process for all of our buyers and sellers. Each order is then passed to our logistics team who process shipping worldwide, liaise with our couriers and packing team who then carefully pack the bottles ready for uplift. This process has ensured over the years that we have the highest quality offering for our customers globally, it’s a team effort to process every single lot that features in our auction. Could this be done from home? Not without comprising the quality of listings, the safety of lots and efficiency of the auction.

Following government advice we absolutely could not ask our team to come into the office to process the auction (as much as they would love to!) to protect them and their families during this difficult time. As much as we love a good dram, and in line with government rules, we simply cannot justify the auction as essential work at this time.

We are always very transparent with our business, we were the first whisky auction site in the UK and the original idea was honestly never really about making money, it was about sharing a passion for whisky with the world, while making auctions accessible for all. That’s why our fees are always the same for everyone, regardless of size or value of collection.
It’s that ethos that has seen our auction grow from hundreds of lots per month to thousands worldwide. We always aim to do the very best for all of our customers, buyers and sellers.

The COVID-19 crisis has put financial pressure on people all over the world, could we be confident going live that transactions would be successful? In a fast changing economic climate a bidder could very well find themselves unable to pay, a seller may not get the price they had expected or indeed may not be paid by the buyer, which makes it a disappointing scenario for everyone. Our extensive courier network are working hard to cope in exceptional circumstances but again, taking capacity from them for non essential services and needs to ship bottles would in our view be the wrong thing to do in the current climate.

Q: When will auctions restart?

We would love to be able to give you a definitive date however we are in the same situation as everyone else, we await government advice as the COVID-19 situation develops. We are simply following government rules that all non-essential business should close and for the reasons above we cannot work from home without compromising the quality of our auction. We are awaiting the review later this week on lockdown measures and if there is any indication of an end date we will be very quick to let everyone know. Our auctions are simply paused, not cancelled. Within days of being advised that it’s safe to return we can have our auction live. Auction 108 will go live as originally planned. All bottles are currently stored in our climate and light controlled secure storage facility. You can rest assured your bottles are safe and fully insured.

We appreciate that this is a difficult time for everyone and we truly hope you understand that by postponing the auction we are not only following Government rules we are putting people before profit, the health and safety of everyone involved has got to come first.

We thank everyone for the hundreds of messages, emails and calls of support throughout this trying time and we sincerely look forward to welcoming you all back to our auctions very soon. It goes without saying that our team are as frustrated as you are, we are passionate about what we do and we hope that you understand our position. We are all in this together.

Wishing you all the best from Glasgow, stay safe and well and we look forward to getting back to normal as quickly as we safely can.

Sincerely

Thomas Gardiner
Scotch Whisky Auctions