West Berkshire Brewery is planning a £4.2m fundraise with the principal aim of expanding its fledgling Renegade Pub Company, MCA has learnt.
Chief executive Simon Lewis told MCA that the group was keen to add further London sites to complement Shillibeers in Islington, which it acquired from Gorgeous Pubs in June. He said the company would also be keen to have pubs along its distribution lines in areas such as Birmingham, Bristol and Southampton.
Planning permission has been secured for the company’s new brewery, which will also feature bottling, canning and kegging lines as well as a visitor centre, shop and café. Work on the 40,000 sq ft site in Yattendon – close to the company’s existing headquarters has already started and Lewis said he hoped the 60 hectolitre brewery equipment would be fitted in December, with the facility going live in Spring 2017.
Lewis said he was already talking to other brewers about contracting once the facility is fully operational.
He said the board had signed off the next stage of fundraising of up to £4.2m, which is likely to be through the Enterprise Investment Scheme. The latest fundraise, led by chairman David Bruce, raised £4.3m.
Lewis was speaking following the publication of the company’s results for the year to 31 March, which showed turnover up to £1.83m – up from £1.62m the year before with gross profit up to £692,000 from £591,000 in 2015. The company made a loss of £270,000 – down from £314,000 the year before – due to investment across the group.
Lewis said: “It was a transformational year – especially because of the groundwork being laid for two major projects for us – our first pub and our new brewery.
“The first few months of Shillibeers have been great and we’re already seeing the benefit of having that shop window for our beers.
“It’s encouraged us that we can do more in this area and the idea of the next fundraise is very much to expand the pub estate. Selling beer will always be the core of this business but that vertical integration model is a fairly obvious one to pursue.
Lewis said the group’s fledgling Renegade craft beer line was growing rapidly and currently represented about 20% of overall sales.
