BREWDOG plans to open a brewery in China and launch a TV channel if it raises enough investment in the fifth round of its Equity For Punks crowdfunding initiative.
The latest round from the craft brewer could raise £50 million, with an initial target of £10m.
Co-founder James Watt said this would make it the largest crowdfunded business in the world.
Much of its early growth has been supported by Equity for Punks, which has raised £41m since 2009, but the last two initiatives, Equity For Punks IV and Equity for Punks USA both missed their targets.
The initial funds will be used to expand production at its Ellon base. Any sums raised above £10m, will be used to build breweries in Australia and Asia, open an additional 15 bars in the UK and launch a dedicated craft beer TV network.
READ MORE: Brewdog takes stock of £1bn valuation
Brewdog’s scale was transformed in April, when a £213m equity investment from San Francisco-based TSG Consumer Partners, valued the business at more than £1 billion. The deal saw early Equity for Punks investments rocket from £230 to £6,600.
The brewery, which now employs more than 800 staff, made a £3.7m pre-tax profit last year, as it grew revenue by 60 per cent to £72m.
ANALYSIS: Will Brewdog grow as big as those it goads?
In addition to its Ellon home, Brewdog this year began production at a new brewery in Columbus, Ohio. It also operates 47 bars around the world.
BrewDog celebrated the opening of this latest round by “invading” London with a giant Trojan dog, filled with its flagship beer, Punk IPA. Brewdog said the 17-foot wooden construction was “a metaphor for the invasion of the corporate world with a new model of business founded in community and passion”.
Mr Watt said: “Our Trojan dog is a reminder of the awesome power of people to change the world, with the crowdfunding revolution delivering a stark wake-up call to a broken system that represents a tiny group of fat cats.
“It’s a symbol of the 50,000 investors who helped transform BrewDog from two humans and a dog into a £1bn business challenging the status quo at every turn. Crowdfunding is no longer alternative business, it is good business. Driven by passion, energy and community.”
Brewdog previously dropped “fat cats” on the City from a helicopter to mark the launch of a previous crowdfunding drive.
Equity for Punks V from BrewDog on Vimeo.
The initial target of £10m will be used to build a new brewhouse at its Ellon brewery to help fulfil growing volume demand across the UK and Europe.
The initiative will run for an initial three months, closing on 15 January 2018.
Ultimately, up to 2,105,262 new B shares could be released, representing approximately 2.8 per cent of the total equity, and approximately 18 per cent of the total B Shares in issue.
Any existing holders of B class shares who do not subscribe to this equity round will experience dilution, as has happened with previous equity rounds.
Shares will cost £23.75 each and be issued in blocks of two, with a minimum investment of two shares for £47.50.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel