The Whisky Exchange (TWE) is a family business founded in 1999, and has since grown to be the internet’s number-one specialist retailer of whisky and other spirits, serving thousands of satisfied customers every week. The Whisky Exchange has flourished since the turn of the Millennium, surviving the dotcom crisis and continuing to diversify and strengthen its business. TWE's remarkable growth over the past five years has been driven by genuine word-of-mouth recommendations based on our excellence of product, fairness of price and reliability of service.

As a family company, we believe that these qualities are what our customers value. As a long-established leader in our field, we don't need to use cheap marketing tricks to get attention. We let our hard work do the talking.

Our philosophy is simple – we never rest on our laurels. We are constantly trying to find new products with genuine heritage and quality in all categories of spirits and liqueurs to add to our range, while continuing to innovate and improve our online functionality and the outstanding customer service that has won us a loyal and ever-expanding fanbase.The Whisky Exchange has won a string of industry awards, including Independent Spirits Retailer of the Year and Whisky Magazine’s Online Retailer of the Year.

OUR RANGE

The Whisky Exchange currently stocks nearly 3,500 whiskies, of which about 2,300 are single malt Scotch whiskies, with 250 bourbons available and the remainder being made up of blended Scotch, grain, Irish, Japanese and other whiskies from countries including Wales, South Africa, India, Sweden and Australia.

In addition to this, there are more than 500 rums, around 400 vodkas, more than 550 Cognacs/Armagnacs, 400 gins, 150 Tequilas and nearly 1,000 specialist liqueurs.

In all, something in the region of 9,500 products are active on the site and available to order online at any given time; this number is increasing as we continue to stock the best of the thousands of new products released each year.

THE NEXT GENERATION

Sukhinder finished university in 1990 and as a chartered surveyor in the middle of a housing slump, helped around the shop while waiting for the job market to improve, planning to move on in a year. Eight years later he had become part of a worldwide network of whisky collectors, his brother had joined him on the shop floor, and The Nest had been expanded and remodelled into one of London's best drinks shops, with a string of awards as evidence of its success. However, all good things must come to an end, and with Narinder and Bhupinder retiring, the family sold the shop in late 1999. But they had plans for what would come next.

In the late 1990s, the potential of using the internet as a shop front was starting to become clear, and Sukhinder and Rajbir were keen to be at the forefront of bringing spirits to the public in this innovative way. Venturing into this uncharted territory was both exhilarating and nerve-wracking, and demanded significant investment in both time and money. The family's skills, history and expertise would prove invaluable. Rajbir had studied computing at university and knew a web developer who built a shop website for the brothers' new company – The Whisky Exchange. They found a small warehouse around the corner from The Nest and filled it with stock borrowed from their father to get them going. Finally, in 1999, after months of planning and building, the website went live and Sukhinder and Rajbir sat waiting for their first order – a few days later, it came in: it was from Germany. Sukhinder's network of whisky collectors from around the world knew about the brothers' project and quickly became regular customers. The company began to grow, with an international audience always at its heart.