Organic brewery’s crowdfunding campaign gives investors 10% off beer

Stroud Brewery in Gloucestershire has launched a bond offer with the aim of raising £300,000 to kit out a new brewery and bar, with investors set to receive a 10% discount on beer purchases during the period of the bond.

Stroud has joined a raft of breweries now resorting to crowdfunding to finance the expansion of their production capacity.

Working with Triodos Bank, it has launched a bond offer with a minimum investment requirement of £1,000 over a seven-year period, after which all capital will be repaid, with 5% interest per year.

The brewery has already achieved 20% of its £300,000 target, with investors becoming members of the Stroud Brewery Beer Club for the bond period, receiving a 10% discount on all beer purchases either online or in the bar.

Founded in 2006 in Thrupp, just outside Stroud, the brewery will move to its new site, 400 yards away from its current premises, in the autumn. With a greater capacity, storage facilities, event space and offices, the new brewery will give the producer more room to grow.

It will also be sustainable and fitted with heat reclamation technology, rainwater collection and solar panels.

The new taproom will have views of the canal and across one of the Cotswold’s valleys.

The brewery sources all malt and barley within a 15 mile radius of the site and reuses its waste grains and hops for cattle feed and composts.

Triodos launched its crowdfunding platform this year and has already raised £18.2 million from seven deals.

Greg Pilley, managing director of Stroud Brewery commented: “This is a significant development for Stroud Brewery and will provide us with the platform to take the business to the next stage. There is no way we could have imagined this six years ago when we moved in to our existing site.”

“The new brewery will allow us to ensure we retain and enhance our quality reputation but also to develop a range of new beers. We are proud to be recognised for our ethos of sustainability and for producing a nationally recognised range of organic beers. When we first started talking about this project we wanted to ensure that sustainability was at the core of the build and accommodate an ecologically designed brewery giving us a strong identity, a visitor destination and a vibrant community space. This crowdfunding campaign will give our customers further opportunities to invest in the brewery’s sustainable practices such as rainwater capture and solar photovoltaic panels.”

Dan Hird, head of the Triodos Corporate Finance team added:  “We are delighted to be working with Stroud Brewery at such an exciting time for the company. We have been impressed with the management team and their commitment to sustainability through the whole supply chain. It is a great fit with Triodos given our existing support for the organic food & farming sector.

“We are committed to helping people make a positive impact with their money, through saving and investing. With this bond offer people can invest directly into a local and organic business which helps people make a positive choice with their spending as well.”

For the crowdfunding page, please click here.