WOWGR Changes in 2025
As of March 3rd, Owners of Warehoused Goods (OWG) has been removed from the Statutory Instrument known as WOWGR (The Warehousekeepers and Owners of Warehoused Goods Regulations 1999) – a layer of legal due diligence which HMRC was responsible for when vetting whether private individuals or revenue trading businesses were operating within the law when owning and storing casks at a bonded warehouse.
WOWGR Licences No Longer Exist
Now that the WOWGR licence no longer exists, it means that cask owners can hold their casks under their name at a bonded warehouse and do not need to use a revenue trading business with a WOWGR license to store their casks. Equally, revenue trading businesses like Cask Trade, no longer need to be covered by a WOWGR license. Businesses and individuals are now legally the same.
Duty Representatives No Longer Exist
The requirement for cask owners outside of the UK to have a duty representative has also been removed. Warehouses will now decide directly whether they’d like to open an account for a business outside of the UK.
What do the changes to WOWGR mean for cask owners?
In theory, this change will create a more direct relationship between the warehouse and the cask owner who has an account with said warehouse. This could be for sampling, regauging, moving, re-racking into a new cask, or bottling. Some believe this may benefit cask whisky as an alternative investment marketplace, making it easier in principle to have direct ownership and transparency regarding that ownership. But the move doesn’t change the fact that most warehouses will not have the capacity to administer multiple accounts for individuals under their own private name.
As a regulated body, the bonded warehouses now have more legal responsibility. This means they may require additional documentation from businesses and private individuals in the future, to stay compliant with HMRC. In essence, a more direct relationship between bonded warehouses and cask owners, also means a more direct relationship between HMRC and cask owners. This way, HMRC can better understand the supply chain and reduce potential fraud.
What do the changes mean for the warehouses?
The onus will now solely be on the warehouse keepers to judge if a private individual, or revenue trading business, can open an account to store casks at a warehouse under their name, this includes owners outside the UK. With more legal responsibility and admin, many warehouses will streamline their systems by opting not to give private individuals accounts at their facilities. If the warehouse adopts this approach, it could mean that a cask will need to be moved if sold to an individual who does not have an account at said warehouse. In contrast, the changes also open a business opportunity for those warehouses who are willing to take on the additional risk and admin, they will be able to charge for the service of providing private individuals with accounts at their warehouse. Cask Trade will provide this service at our own warehouse in Speyside, for an additional £50 fee.
How does this effect Delivery Orders (DOs)?
DOs are still common practice and will continue to be to be the main method of providing a written record of who a warehouse should contact regarding any movement of a cask. Private individuals will have to have an account at a warehouse in order to receive a DO, something they may find difficult to obtain, especially if warehouses are reluctant to open additional accounts given the additional admin and increased legal responsibility they now have. These warehouses may work with existing revenue trading businesses, who have accounts with them, to obtain Dos for cask owners. Therefore, most cask owners will still need to purchase and hold their casks with a registered trading business like Cask Trade, who already has accounts at bonded warehouses.
At Cask Trade we are currently able to offer a delivery order to transfer the ownership of casks to any client that has an account at a warehouse. The Cask Trade Warehouse in Speyside, will of course be able to give those customers with accounts DOs for their casks. We can also continue to act as a custodian in any event, by looking after and professionally managing our clients’ casks at other facilities under our warehouse accounts.