Innis & Gunn smashes £1m crowdfunding target

Scottish brewery Innis & Gunn has smashed its £1 million crowd-funding target in three days, as it eyes up new bars across the UK and US.

Innis & Gunn’s founder and master brewer Dougal Gunn Sharp at its VR beer launch in August

The company had been looking to accelerate its growth plans with the opening of four new Beer Kitchen bars next year, but the speed with which it reached its target, and the likelihood that it will be overfunded, means the brewery may be able to ramp this up even further.

The AdventureCapital campaign hosted by Crowdcube, which currently stands at £1.325 million, is offering around 2% equity in the business and still has three weeks to run. It was launched on 1 November week with Innis & Gunn employees offered first refusal on shares in the business.

Since being founded in 2003, the company has seen year-on-year volume and sales growth, with turnover hitting £12.5 million in 2015, up 36% since 2012. It is looking to double this to £25 million over the next three years, by ramping up production and adding a new barrel ageing hall and filtration technology to the Inveralmond brewery that it bought in April. Currently it sells around 23 million bottles of beer globally and operates two Beer Kitchens in Dundee and Edinburgh, with a third set to open in St Andrews this month.

Speaking at the launch of its virtual reality beer ‘experience’ in the summer, founder and master brewer Dougal Gunn Sharp told db the bars provide Innis & Gunn with the chance to trial potential new products on consumers, while the new brewery had formed part of a three-year plan to scale up production and treble the company’s output. Innovation was a key focus, however,  with Inveralmond acting as an “innovation hub” to develop new lines.

He explained that an ‘Oakerator’ – a bespoke percolator that speeds up the oak-ageing of its Original beer line – had already installed which was helping boost production.

At the launch of the crowdfunding drive, Gunn Sharp said the craft beer scene has been virtually non-existent when the company started in 2003. “Through perseverance, hard work, and outstanding beer, we have been able to play a key role in spearheading the growth of the movement in the UK and in turn build a successful international business selling our beers in over 20 markets,” he said.