How technology is transforming the drinks industry
The CEO of Proof 8 delves into how technology is streamlining spirits operations and optimising production, traceability and transparency.
During ProWein 2025, Hollands took to The Spirits Business Hub stage with editor-in-chief of The Spirits Business Melita Kiely to talk all things tech and SAS (system as a software).
“The beauty of SAS is that it’s something you can take in pieces when you need it,” Hollands explained. “The barriers to entry are really low for companies to come in and transform what they’re currently doing internally. That might be a distillery that’s tracking their production on Excel sheets or a warehouses that’s managing maturation on a Google sheet, or maybe even still on paper records.
“The beauty of some of the things that we’re doing is we’re providing the tools, the digital tools that we’re familiar with in our normal lives to help these businesses operate more efficiently, digitalise their operations, get better data, and connect with their end consumers.”
Hollands said the spirits industry – one full of heritage and craft – was “ripe for digital transformation”, and stressed it is possible to balance both history and digitalisation.
With global economic turbulence at present, everyone from consumers to producers are becoming more cautious about their spending or investments.
Time to innovate
However, Hollands referred to a report from five years ago that showed those who innovated during times of economic hardship were more successful in the long run.
He said: “It’s a McKinsey 2020 report that looked back at all the recessions that we’ve had over the last 50 years, I think. They track the top 50, or top 500, most innovative companies in the world that continued to innovate during those times of recession or massive disruption, you know, political disruption that we have at the moment [for example].
“Those companies that continued to invest in innovation came out with a 30% higher worth at the end of that period, that recession period; 30% [were] in a better position.
“It’s a brilliant report that talks about the need to innovate and actually, the massive opportunity when there’s recessions, when there’s difficult times, where there’s political instability, that is a big opportunity to innovate and disrupt rather than batten down the hatches.”
The full conversation with Hollands is available to watch via the link below, or on The Spirits Business YouTube channel, along with other interviews and panel talks from The Spirits Business Hub at ProWein 2025.
Hollands also recently featured on The Spirits Business Podcast.
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