Lakes Distillery to bring ‘innovation to the spirits sector’ in £1m crowdfund

The Lakes Distillery has embarked on a seven-figure crowdfunding campaign.

The Cumbria-based distillery is aiming to sell £1m worth of shares via investment platform Crowdcube.

The company, which has an office in Newcastle, said the cash raised will go towards new warehousing and distribution facilities and the production of whisky stock.

The crowdfunding campaign is the final part of a £10m EIS capital investment programme that has attracted interest from high net worth individuals.

Since it started trading three years ago, the Lakes Distillery has already produced £30m worth of whisky at retail, which is around 600k bottles.

The firm’s blended whisky is on sale in high street outlets across the UK and in several export markets, including the Far East and Australia.

Turnover is forecast to be at or above £5m for 2017, with EBITDA forecast to be a loss of £98k this year but a profit of £100k in 2018, which would see the company operating at a profit one year ahead of schedule.

Managing director Paul Currie, who is one of the distillery’s three founders, said: “The Lakes Distillery is a unique British enterprise challenging established distillers with a range of new products crafted in the Lake District National Park by a business owned by a new cohort of entrepreneurs.

“We have tackled the launch of new spirits brands differently by becoming a tourist destination in our own right, a community based restaurant business, niche exporter, and successful e-retailer, while allowing our core product, the Lakes Single Malt, to mature for its market launch from 2018.”

Nigel Mills, the distillery’s co-founder and chairman, commented: “Our first investors, made up of high net worth individuals, continue to invest but we have decided to reach out to the public, which has been so supportive in our first few years.

“There is now a strong order book for our spirits, an established and repeatable trade at our distillery and the very real prospect for small investors of owning a piece of English whisky history.”

He added: “I am confident this next round of investment will prove popular and successful, bringing to the spirits sector the innovation that has led BrewDog to challenge the orthodoxy of big brewers.”