The £1M of shares represents the final tranche of a £10 million EIS capital investment programme that has attracted significant interest from high net worth individuals. It will be available in much smaller quantities via Crowdcube, which allows a minimum investment of £10.
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| The Lakes Distillery launches £1M share scheme |
The share scheme is designed to create a cohort of shareholder customers who will also become ambassadors for this uniquely British enterprise. It is using a similar technique in the spirits sector that has been deployed successfully by the craft beer sector, notably by growing challenger brewery Brew Dog into a $1billion brand.
The Lakes Distillery started trading three years ago and has already produced £30 million worth of whisky (600,000 bottles) at retail. It has won numerous prestigious awards and introduced a number of Gin and Vodka brands and a unique British blended whisky, that are on sale in high street outlets in the UK and in major export markets, including the Far East and Australia.
Commenting on the news, Paul Currie, one of the three founders of the Lakes Distillery, said: “The Lakes Distillery is a unique British enterprise challenging established distillers with a range of new products crafted in the Lake District National Park by a business owned by a new cohort of entrepreneurs. We have tackled the launch of new spirits brands differently by becoming a tourist destination in our own right, a community based restaurant business, niche exporter, and successful e-retailer, while allowing our core product, the Lakes Single Malt, to mature for its market launch from 2018.”
He went onto say: “Our first investors, made up of high net worth individuals continue to invest but we have decided to reach out to the public, which has been so supportive in our first few years. There is now a strong order book for our spirits, an established and repeatable trade at our distillery and the very real prospect for small investors of owning a piece of English whisky history. I am confident this next round of investment will prove popular and successful, bringing to the spirits sector the innovation that has led Brew Dog to challenge the orthodoxy of big brewers.”
In addition to producing spirits, the Lakes Distillery has become a Top Ten Lake District tourist attraction, receiving in excess of 100,000 visitors a year to their visitors centre.
Posted by Steve Rush