The global market for beverage alcohol is huge, complex and fast-evolving. Even within a single alcohol category, there are multiple routes to market, a myriad of products and often unreliable statutory data.

There are also shifting consumer tastes to contend with, and anomalies between supply chains in different markets. Brand owners, investors and intermediaries worldwide, face some challenging questions: What is actually happening? Why is it happening? And what should I do about it?

This was the research problem that confronted Val Smith in the early 1970s, and led him to founding IWSR. In an era of typewriters, hand-drawn spreadsheets and telex machines, he responded by creating the first global network of drinks market experts reporting on beverage alcohol sales.