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Delightful Storage

25 August 2016 | 

voestalpine Krems Finaltechnik has set up an ultra modern warehouse for Austria’s number one whiskey distillery. The unusual project required extensive innovative and customer-specific know-how.

More than storage

The right storage in oak barrels is part of the development process needed to bring out the whiskey’s distinct flavor. It must age at least three years in an oak barrel, but Johann Haider, the founder of the distillery, wants to be able to store it up to 12 years or longer. It was therefore critical to find the right partner to build the storage racks to ensure that the final product will have the best possible harmonization. That is why whiskey distiller J. Haider chose the specialists at voestalpine.

Safety and easy handling

The warehouse holds more than 1,500 225-liter barrels of this noble spirit. The customer decided to store the barrels individually on special pallet carriers instead of stacking them on pallets as is usual in this industry. This makes it possible to access each individual barrel at any time. “Our goal was to store as much of this valuable product as possible in a 7 meter high warehouse, making sure that it was safe, stable, and easy to both store and retrieve,” is how Thomas Toscani, sales employee at voestalpine Krems Finaltechnik GmbH, summed up the task. Double deep pallet racking was chosen to ensure sufficient stability. Working together with Metal Applications GmbH (MEA), the warehouse was stabilized with two connected pallet racks and specially developed press locked gratings. This ensures that the weight of the 300 kg barrels is evenly distributed. A reach truck equipped with a front camera as a loading aid can move each barrel individually.

Whiskey for the future

The next generation of specialists at voestalpine Krems Finaltechnik will also be involved with the whiskey distillery. A good third of the planned rack space has already been installed. In 15 years, the warehouse will be at full capacity and will hold—translated into drinking units—almost half a million liters of whiskey. For Johann Haider, the “Roggenreith whiskey warehouse” project has become an opportunity for generations to come: “The system from Krems allows pallet racks to be reliably added even beyond one and a half decades—it was also the optimum choice for our family company because we had a change of generations in January 2016.” The new Managing Director, Jasmin Haider, will also be a reliable partner to voestalpine Krems Finaltechnik GmbH.

Whisky-Erlebniswelt J. Haider GmbH
A-3664 Roggenreith 3
Whiskyworld online

Since 1995, the Haider family’s whiskey distillery in Roggenreith, Lower Austria, has been developing a connoisseur’s brand. The maturing time needed to produce a good quality whiskey made it necessary to add more storage room, and that brought another successful Austrian brand into play: voestalpine Krems Finaltechnik GmbH.