Member Article

Curious Drinks launches crowdfunding campaign to support Ashford brewery plans

Chapel Down’s beer and cider business, Curious Drinks, has embarked on a Seedrs equity crowdfunding campaign and share placing to raise at least £1m.

The AIM-listed vineyard and pub operator is hoping to use the proceeds to construct a state-of-the-art new brewery and visitor attraction in the heart of Ashford, Kent.

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. Chapel Down are in final negotiations to acquire a 1.7 acre site in Ashford.

Meanwhile, Stewart Gilliland and Rachel Montague-Ebbs are set to join the drinks company’s board.

Chapel Down, which is headquartered in Tenterden, has seen demands for its beer and cider increase substantially 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.

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.

Frazer Thompson, CEO of Chapel Down and Curious Drinks, said: “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.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .