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About Bruynzeel
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Highlights
JAS HENNESSY & CO, France
is the world's largest cognac manufacturer and annually sells about 70 million bottles, which represents more than 40% of the world's total annual cognac sales.
In 2015, Hennessy decided to restructure and centralize their archives, which have grown over the years and, due to lack of space, have been located in various places within the organization. The archives are divided into two different parts, a historical archive and a contemporary archive. Today, after the renovation, the historical archive is open to visitors and serves as the Hennessy Group's own museum. During the same time, the contemporary archives were also organized and restructured into one archive.
It is important to know where we are coming from in our continued path forward.
Raphael Gérard, Heritage and Cultural Action Manager
AFTER 250 YEARS, IT WAS TIME FOR A REAL SPRING CLEANING!
In 1765, Richard Hennessy established the company in the French city of Cognac, now best known for the significant range of spirits from the region. Cognac, made from double-distilling grapes, is well known throughout the world. In 2015, in connection with Hennessy's 250th anniversary, the management decided to show the history and all the interesting objects in the archives to the public. Now a world leader and part of the LVMH Group, it was time to create some order.
Since 1765, Hennessy has operated in the same premises and with great care has preserved its history in the archives. This anniversary gave them an opportunity to sort, clean and catalog in the 7 km long archive storage that was scattered in various places.
HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY ARCHIVES, TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WAYS TO WORK
The restructuring project started as early as 2012, with the aim of getting the archives organised. On one side, the historical archives were housed in a former fermentation room. On the other side, the present, modern archives were stored in five different places at the company's headquarters, sometimes quite far apart. The idea behind the historical archive was to preserve their collection in the best way and at the same time make certain parts of the company's history public. Bruynzeel's task was to combine these two wishes in the best possible way. Opening the archive to the public was an opportunity for Hennessy to showcase all the collected material and thus find another way to market themselves. The sorting began to select historical objects that could be displayed in a nice way. There were a large number of limited editions, collections and advertisements from different eras in one place.
categorize and centralize
For the contemporary archive, the desire was to categorize and centralize the five different archives. There were a large number of documents that were active and used more frequently. Administrative and legal documents are often needed as a basis in, for example, forgery investigations. The problem in the past has been to easily find the documents when the archives are scattered in different places. The goal was therefore to centralize and make them more accessible. At the same time, they took the opportunity to clean and sort out unnecessary documents.
THE HISTORICAL ARCHIVE OPENS UP FOR THE PUBLIC
The room where the historical archive was located was previously the “fermentation room”, a narrow building with high ceilings. To make the most of the space, a Compactus® Double Decker was designed, which is a high density mobile shelving system on two floors. It not only doubles the capacity of the floor space which is 136 m2 but also gives the same capacity on the second floor. The room was divided into half. The Compactus® Double Decker was installed on one half of the room and on the other half a more designed archive with glass panes was installed to nicely display delicate and historical objects.
It is a very good solution we have received, both functionally and representatively. We already have more visitors than we expected.
Raphael Gérard, Heritage and Cultural Action Manager
CENTRALIZATION OF THE MODERN AND CURRENT ARCHIVES
The contemporary archive required a little more careful review to sort out duplicates and unnecessary documents. The remaining parts were structured and archived in the new archive, which was divided into two different rooms, a total of 250 m2. The two rooms were again narrow and maximizing available space was the requirement. Bruynzeel proposed a smart solution with electrically controlled high density mobile shelving systems, Compactus® along the far-reaching walls. In general, it can be said that hugh density mobile archives double the surface and are very advantageous from an economic point of view. 5,700 shelf meters are now at Hennessy's disposal and future storage needs are now covered.
Alcohol dependence is harmful to your health. Consume in moderation.
The management prioritized pushing through these changes and today we are very proud to be able to show the premises to the public. With the archives, we have really managed to optimize the spaces we have had access to. From having worked in outdated systems, we now have the best conditions.
Raphael Gérard, Heritage and Cultural Action Manager
