Chapel Down Group PLC, England’s leading winemaker, has announced that Curious Drinks Limited (“Curious Drinks”), its beer and cider business, plans to raise at least £1m through a placing and a crowdfunding campaign with Seedrs, one of the world’s leading equity crowdfunding platforms. Investors will receive shares in Curious Drinks, currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chapel Down.
Growing demand to be met
Demand for Chapel Down’s beer and cider continues to increase with sales growing at around 40% per annum. Demand is being driven from top end restaurants, bars and hotels, as well as in the premium off trade, with Curious Brew lager now the best-selling craft beer in Majestic Wine.
Proceeds from the crowdfunding will be used to construct a state-of-the-art new brewery and visitor attraction in the heart of Ashford, Kent, offering ideal transport links to London and the continent. The brewery, expected to be fully operational by December 2016, will enable Curious Drinks to consolidate its brewing and bottling operations into a single site, bringing significant cost savings and enhancing margins. Proceeds will also be used to further strengthen the Curious Drinks team, enhance its domestic and international routes to market and further develop the brand.
Investment opportunity
The campaign, which follows a successful crowdfunding undertaken by Chapel Down in 2014, is an opportunity to invest in a profitable English beer and cider maker with strong growth prospects. Investors will receive a number of attractive benefits, from free brewery tours and 25% discounts on beer and cider to their names etched on brewery fermentation tanks and exclusive limited edition beers. In addition, investors who are UK taxpayers will be eligible for Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) relief. With EIS, investors may be able to claim back up to 30% of their investment in income tax relief and will not pay capital gains tax on any gains they make if they sell their shares.
Board appointments
Chapel Down is also announcing today that it has made two appointments to the Board of Curious Drinks. Stewart Gilliland, currently Executive Chairman of Booker plc and a Non-Executive Director of Mitchells & Butlers plc, will join Curious Drinks as Non-Executive Chairman. Rachel Montague-Ebbs, Supply Chain Director at CPM Retail and one of Management Today’s “35 Women Under 35 2015”, will join as Non-Executive Director. These appointments are effective from the 1st March 2016 being the day following the final acceptance date.
Frazer Thompson, CEO of Chapel Down and Curious Drinks:
“Curious Drinks is a unique proposition – a range of beers and cider made by winemakers, benefiting from our passion for ingredients, our thirst for knowledge and our dedication to creating the best possible product.
“Demand for our Curious beers and cider has increased significantly since we first started making them four years ago and in order to meet demand we need to invest in all areas of the business. We want to bring our customers on the journey with us and are offering some fantastic benefits along the way. We were humbled by the overwhelming response to last year’s record-breaking Chapel Down crowdfund and hope to build an equally impassioned army of shareholders for Curious Drinks through this latest campaign.
“I am delighted to welcome Stewart Gilliland and Rachel Montague-Ebbs to the Board of Curious Drinks. Their experience and wisdom will be hugely beneficial to the business as we continue to grow.”
The crowd-funding campaign will be open until 29th February 2016. Investors can invest as little as £100. Full details can be found at www.curiousbrew.com and www.seedrs.com