Cotswolds Distillery surpasses £2m crowdfunding target

Cotswolds Distillery has revealed that it has surpassed its initial £2 million crowdfunding target in a week, having received support from over 500 investors to build a new visitor centre.

Launching the campaign on Crowdcube last week, the distillery has, to-date, received £2,119,260 from 571 investors, and is now overfunding.

Last year, it launched a similar campaign during which it raised £1,185,120 from 21 investors. It also secured £1 million through the Angels’ Share campaign on Crowdbnk, and has also recently received a £145,000 grant from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development to go towards the visitor centre build.

Founded in 2013, Cotswolds Distillery began production in 2014 and now produces a spirit range including gin and single malt whisky. The distillery has a one million bottle per annum production capacity with sales growing by 75% to £3.1 million in 2017.

It stated that the funds will be used to boost advertising, extend its sales and distribution network and build a new visitor centre.

Investors will receive a lifetime 10% discount through the Cotswolds Distillery online shop. The crowdfunding will close at the end of this month.

Commenting on both the grant and the crowdfunding campaign, Dan Szor, founder and CEO of the Cotswolds Distillery said: “We are thrilled with this marvellous vote of confidence from the UK Government, which will allow us to enhance our award-winning visitor offering.

“We’re looking forward to completing our visitors’ centre project and really creating a destination that brings people to the area, showcasing this stunning region that’s so dear to us.

“We were able to hit our initial £2,000,000 target yesterday (8 May) evening – only a week into our Crowdcube campaign. It was only fitting that the last £1,000 came from a past (and our best ever) summer intern who was so enamoured by his time with us that he’s decided to become an owner”.