Halewood Artisanal Spirits are one of the largest UK-based independent distillers and distributors of artisanal spirits, exporting to 95 countries across the world. They are the producer of award-winning, leading spirit brands such Whitley Neill and Dead Man’s Fingers.
The industry challenge
The manufacturing industry is awash with challenges which have been heightened over the past few years. Food and drink in particular, is one of the largest manufacturing industries in the UK and one that has been facing unprecedented pressure when it comes to cost reduction.
It’s reported that increased energy prices affected food and beverage businesses more than any other, with energy accounting for around 15% of the total costs for the average food and drink manufacturer. Minimising the impact of record energy price increases and finding ways to make a business more energy efficient are vital to remaining competitive, managing cost and protecting ever narrowing profit margins.
Providing energy price certainty and protection
For over 20 years Halewood have been working with Inenco across a range of services, with a particular focus on embedding a robust energy procurement and trading strategy to help effectively manage energy spend.
Inenco manage over £2.5bn worth of energy spend annually for customers across the UK. This scale of procurement comes with the benefit of strong supplier relationships and specialist expertise, as Inenco offer a range of energy procurement options to suit various organisations and appetites to risk.
Following a thorough risk management and scoping session Halewood opted for a capped strategy approach, which allows for the maximum commodity price to be set at the outset of trading. This provides upper price certainty but also offers the potential to take advantage of downward market movements. This strategy has provided Halewood with price certainty and protection against rising energy prices, particularly during the recent market volatility.
Halewood were able to avoid potential energy spends of £7 million through the specialist trading advice of Inenco. Energy pricing is made up of both commodity costs (such as crude oil) and non-commodity costs (such as distribution and taxes). Most recently Halewood have benefited from exceptionally low electricity pricing with their secured commodity prices being zero. This is due to Inenco historically setting effective price caps and strategically trading for Halewood’s forward electricity requirements during lockdown. The market turmoil at this time forced the benchmark oil price to plummet below zero for the first time in history.
Reducing energy consumption
The cheapest and greenest kilowatt hour is the one unused. Which is why in addition to an effective energy procurement strategy, Inenco have supported Halewood with their energy reduction efforts. Providing robust engineering support, establishing an energy consumption baseline, and using in-depth analysis to identify cost and carbon reduction opportunities.
Ensuring only what is used, is paid for
Halewood also benefit from Inenco’s Invoice Validation service, where skilled and meticulous analysts make sure that supplier billing errors, duplications, and overcharges are avoided. This helps to ensure that Halewood have consistency in their billing and gives them peace of mind that their energy invoicing is accurate.
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