An Interview with Benjamin Lancaster

1. Thank you for taking part in this interview. For those in our community who may not be familiar with VCL Vintners, how would you describe the business and what you specialise in?

VCL is the UK’ most established whisky broker. Since 2010, our focus has been to transform whisky cask ownership from what was once quite a niche collector activity into a more credible and accessible alternative asset class. Over the past 16 years, we’ve acted on behalf of more than 2,000 collectors worldwide, building tailor-made single-cask portfolios ranging from new-fill spirit to some of the rarest and oldest casks on the market. Today, we manage 16,000 casks valued at over £150 million through an extensive network of distilleries and suppliers, some of whom we work with on an exclusive basis.

2. What inspired the creation of VCL Vintners back in 2010?

I have been in and around hospitality for a number of years, both front and back-of-house, so I’d always been around the drinks trade in one way or another. That gave me a really solid grounding in the industry and, just as importantly, an appreciation of the people in it.

I was fortunate to have been introduced to a few wineries and early-stage distilleries during my travels and have worked in the wine spirits industry as a result.  I’ve long been a fan of Scotch whisky, and Scotland, therefore it was a natural pivot to take the company in that direction/industry.  It was through that appreciation that I began to start learning more seriously about the sector. As I investigated the market, I could see just how well whisky (bottles) was performing at auction. Casks were a different story, however. If you wanted to buy a cask at the time, it was incredibly difficult. There was very little infrastructure around it and many distilleries were still relying on old paper-based systems, which made transfers of ownership slow, opaque, and unnecessarily complicated. It struck me that whisky wasn’t evolving at the same pace as other alternative asset classes and that a lack of structure and modern systems were holding the market back. That felt like a real opportunity for us to step in and modernise the traditional broker model by creating a cask and client management system built on transparency, governance, and professionalism.

3. What initially motivated VCL Vintners to partner with the DEVELOP Programme?

We set up the VCL Foundation with the aim of giving something meaningful back to the industry in which I and many others at VCL started our careers. From the outset, I wanted it to be about creating opportunities for people and supporting the long-term health of the sector. The Drinks Trust, and particularly the DEVELOP programme, really resonated with that. At its core, DEVELOP is about helping people gain skills, confidence and prospects, and that felt like a really practical and worthwhile way to make a difference. We decided initially to support the Scotch Whisky Certificate bursary with the Edinburgh Whisky Academy and the CIBD Foundation in Distilling bursary seemed a natural extension of that. Between the two, we’re proud to be helping more than 45 people a year access training that could genuinely improve their career chances and open up new paths in the industry. We’ve also decided to make the Edinburgh Whisky Academy training part of the induction process for every employee at VCL, because education and understanding should run through the whole business, not just sit alongside it.

4. How does the partnership with DEVELOP align with your company’s wider values and long-term vision?

The success of the whisky industry is built on its people. It depends on knowledge, trust, craftsmanship and standards being passed on and strengthened over time. We’ve always wanted to build a business that is credible, sustainable and rooted in doing things properly. Partnering on DEVELOP supports that ethos. It’s about backing people, fostering professionalism and helping bolster the wider ecosystem we’re part of.

5. Why is investing in professional development with DEVELOP important to VCL Vintners?

Investing in people is always worthwhile. In any service-led industry, and especially one as people-centric as drinks and hospitality, skills and confidence make a huge difference. Proessional development gives people a stronger sense of direction and a better chance of progressing in their careers. It can help someone take the next step in their current role, or help them retrain and move into a different part of the sector altogether. Either way, it creates momentum. From our perspective, that matters because a better-trained workforce benefits everybody: employers, customers and the industry as a whole. Programme like DEVELOP give people practical tools and recognised qualifications that can really change their outlook and opportunities.

6. In what ways do you believe supporting DEVELOP strengthens the wider drinks industry?

It’s been a very tough few years for the industry in the wake of the pandemic with rising costs, higher rents and ongoing pressure on margins all having a material impact on the health of the hospitality industry. We’ve seen pubs close at an alarming rate and the recent collapse two high-profile UK craft brewers all underscore how challenging the economic environment remains. In that kind of climate, supporting people becomes even more important. I started out in hospitality and it gave me a deep appreciation for the energy, resilience and graft that people in the industry bring every day. It’s the people that make the sector so vibrant and dynamic and if we can help individuals retrain, upskill or simply regain confidence at a difficult point in their working lives, then that helps foster resilience within the industry more broadly. It means we retain talent, widen opportunity and help ensure that good people aren’t lost to the sector simply because they didn’t have access to support at the right moment.

7. In your view, what gaps currently exist in the industry that programmes like DEVELOP can help to bridge?

One of the biggest gaps is access: access to training, access to recognised qualifications and, in some cases, access to the networks or encouragement that help people move forward. Programmes like DEVELOP make a real difference because they help level the playing field, providing practical support for people and a route into new opportunities. They also help the industry become more resilient and inclusive, because they make it easier for people from different backgrounds and circumstances build a future in the trade.

8. Why is it important for companies like VCL Vintners to actively support charitable organisations such as The Drinks Trust?

I think that businesses have a responsibility to look beyond themselves, especially when they’ve achieved success in a particular industry. The Drinks Trust does a vital job in assisting people across the sector, often at moments when they need it most, through practical help or wellbeing support or professional development. For companies like VCL, being able to contribute to that in some way is important – anything we can do that benefits the wider industry we’re connected to is a positive. And I think that supporting organisations like The Drinks Trust is one of the most meaningful ways to do that.

9. What’s the long-term vision for VCL Vintners?

From the beginning, our ambition was to become the UK’s largest and most trusted whisky broker, and to help bring more structure, professionalism and transparency to the secondary whisky market. That remains the vision. We want to continue to raise standards, improving how the market operates and giving clients greater confidence in what has historically been quite a fragmented and opaque space. But, as well as that, we want to play a positive role in the wider industry, through legacy partnerships. For me, long-term success is more than growth. It’s about building something credible and enduring, and hopefully leaving the industry in a stronger position than when we started.