Hawkstone Brewery.
Hawstone had the beer. It had TV’s biggest name. Now it needed an integration partner to rely on.
The brand.
Hawkstone Brewery proves some of the best ideas start with a pint.
Husband and wife Rick and Emma Keene were sitting in their Cotswolds local having a jar when TV’s Jeremy Clarkson walked in and bought his own at the bar.
Jeremy was looking for a way to put his farm’s barley to good use, Rick and Emma were passionate about local produce and brewing the best possible Premium British Lagers. They were all introduced by the pub landlord, and the rest is history.
Together the trio formed Hawkstone, producing lagers, ciders and vodka using only the best local produce - much of which comes from Jeremy’s Diddly Squat farm.
With Rick and Emma’s brewing nouse, Jermey’s global fame (and beautiful barley) and a booming subscription service, Hawkstone was soon enjoying massive growth.
But scaling fast saw the need for a solid tech stack to give Hawkstone the solid foundations for strategic and sustainable growth.
The snag.
The brand was starting to outgrow its current systems and needed to upgrade to ensure that technology did not inhibit its ambitions.
Hawkstone moved to Shopify from Squarespace in January 2023 and committed to a new 3PL in Sunday Times Wine Club. However, this was the first time Hawkstone’s 3PL had ever integrated with Shopify, and nothing was available out of the box.
Its warehouse was set up to ship wine in strict formats and quantities, while Hawkstone’s customers had much more flexibility in ordering beer. How Shopify sent order data out was very different from how Sunday Times Wine Club’s SAP ERP system needed data sent in.
Adding the brand’s crisps, book, glassware, vodka, and merchandise, as well as the complexity of each potential order, required a highly flexible way for Hawkstone’s warehouse to receive and process Shopify order data—something not possible off-the-shelf.
One of its partner Shopify Agencies, Pluro, introduced HighCohesion to the project to see if we could facilitate the integration. We quickly saw this was one of those ideal use cases for HighCohesion, and we got to work on marrying the two systems on its advanced platform.
Working at speed with the high-energy Hawkstone team and Pluro, we helped ensure the Shopify site launched speedily and seamlessly.
3 weeks
Time taken for the initial integration.
4 systems
Integrated through HighCohesion: Shopify, SAP, AirTable, Submarine.
Jonas Munk - CCO, Hawkstone Brewery.
“HiCo’s agility and ability to deliver mean that we don’t have to compromise on customer experiences, growth initiatives, or product range”
The HighCohesion solution.
HighCohesion helps on several levels, absorbing the complex order data streaming from Hawkstone’s Shopify store to its warehouse.
We translate the data for Hawkstone, ingesting the normal orders before customising how they are sent to the warehouse ready for picking and packing.
For anybody shopping on Hawkstone’s website, it is business as usual, but behind the scenes, HighCohesion’s platform ensures every order is translated effectively.
HighCohesion’s platform also gives Hawkstone far greater visibility over every stage of their orders; for starters, orders are now split out to ensure smooth picking and packing. Further, HighCohesion has also enabled effective inventory syncing with the help of an AirTable Inventory Management System.
This takes the single-bottle inventory quantities from the warehouse and automatically calculates inventory levels across all the formats Hawkstone sells in (bundles, mixed selections, limited editions, pre-orders, etc.).
HighCohesion has enabled Hawkstone’s inventory to be accurately updated with each Shopify order, eliminating over-ordering and improving customer experience.
Ultimately, we solved Hawkstone’s problem, taking systems that don't natively talk to each other and helping them link where they wouldn't have otherwise.
The feedback.
But of course, we’re biased. Let the guys at Hawkstone tell you why they love HighCohesion’s input…
“HighCohesion has been a great partner. They not only understand the complex requirements in our business but are also able to keep pace with one of the UK's fastest-growing companies while challenging us on the best possible solution architecture.
“Their agility and ability to deliver mean that we don’t have to compromise on customer experiences, growth initiatives, or product range.
“Besides the key bolts and nuts of translating order data from Shopify to SAP, HighCohesion has also helped us improve our internal routines and processes, inventory management, and optimise our overall tech stack and how it all integrates.
“HighCohesions' highly stable and effective platform means we can deliver delicious Premium British Lagers, Ciders, and Vodka to consumers in as little as 24 hours from order placement to delivery and ready for consumption.”
Thirsty, yet? Visit Hawkstone here.
Tech stack integrated through HighCohesion
Ecommerce Platform
Direct Wines 3PL
Direct Wine’s ERP