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The West Berkshire Brewery is seeking to raise £1,400,000 in return for 19.26% equity in the company.
Summary
The West Berkshire Brewery plc ("WBB") is an independent brewery founded in 1995 by Dave and Helen Maggs. It is situated in Yattendon, Berkshire from where it produces a range of bottled, kegged and cask-conditioned beers and lagers for which over 40 awards have been won, including Champion Strong Beer of Britain.
Distribution of our products is throughout southern England. Currently, the Company’s customer base includes hundreds of free houses and off-licences as well as significant listings with national supermarkets and pub companies. In addition, the company has recently agreed to begin to export its beers across the globe.
The company currently employs 19 people in a wide variety of roles. Sales in the year to March 2014 were up 20% on the previous year and continuing growth in the current financial year is showing an increase in revenue to a total of £1.95m.
Planning consent is in process to build a state-of-the-art brewery on the same estate that has hosted the brewery since 1999.
Product range
The Company currently produces a core range of eight different bottled beers and cask-conditioned ales, as well as monthly and seasonal speciality beers, all of which are available to buy throughout southern England. Currently, the Company’s customers include high-quality free houses across the country, including a listing of two beers with Enterprise Inns and further sales with Waitrose, Majestic Wines and Fortnum & Mason.
The Company’s beers and ales, some of which celebrate local characters, have won over 40 awards including Champion Strong Beer of Britain, and, most recently this year, the International Beer Challenge Awards and two Great Taste Awards.
Pub map
The company is seeking to raise £1,400,000 in return for 19.26% equity in the company (a subscription price of £3 per share). The minimum subscription amount is £5,000 or such other minimum subscription as the directors and Asset Match may determine from time to time.
The company has a single share class and investors will be issued shares that rank pari passu with the existing share capital.
Use of proceeds
The company intends to take advantage of the exciting, substantial and growing craft beer market.
Production: The company will outgrow its current site by 2017. Therefore WBB plans to construct a purpose-built, high-spec brewery, installing kit that will allow for a tenfold increase in production with massively improved efficiencies. The company currently receives marginal rate beer duty relief, and can grow production by approximately six times before paying the full beer duty.
WBB intends to build a new visitor centre complete with a larger shop and a café.
The proposed new bottling, kegging and canning facilities at the new brewery will reduce in-house costs, and will provide an additional revenue stream as WBB will provide flexible outsourced packaging services of the highest quality to other brewers.
Sales and exports: The company has already expanded its sales & marketing team to drive domestic sales through pubs and supermarkets.
After successful initial sales WBB intends to promote export sales.
Managed pubs: WBB intends to acquire at least one drink-led, managed pub in an urban location.
The directors and employees of the company are committed to continue to grow the business and brew quality beers. The further development of income streams is to be achieved through: development of new beers; contract bottling; managed pub(s); brewery shop and cafe; online sales; and export.
The company has entered into an agreement with Asset Match to facilitate electronic trading of the ordinary shares, subject to the Articles of Association. It is anticipated that the share trading facility will become active at an appropriate time, as agreed upon between the company and Asset Match.
The West Berkshire Brewery PLC has submitted its plan to raise money, details of its structure and trade etc. to HMRC and has been given advance assurance that the proposed share issue is likely to qualify for Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) tax reliefs. To date, the company has raised c. £2.75m of new money via EIS.
Tax relief is available only to individuals who subscribe for shares in an Enterprise Investment Scheme. Relief is at 30 per cent. of the cost of the shares, to be offset against the individuals' Income Tax liability for the tax year in which the investment was made.
If you sell, give away or otherwise dispose of shares, tax reliefs can reduce your Capital Gains Tax liability. Your shares must meet certain conditions to qualify for these reliefs.
Please visit the HMRC website for further information on EIS tax relief.
The availability of any tax relief, including EIS and SEIS, depends on the individual circumstances of each investor, and may be subject to change in the future. If you are in any doubt about availability of any tax reliefs, of the tax treatment of your investment, you should obtain independent tax advice before proceeding with your investment.
This summary should be read in conjunction with all documentation made available on this site. Please read the supporting documentation carefully before making any investment decision.
You are reminded that investing in early stage and unquoted businesses involves risks, including illiquidity, lack of dividends, loss of investment and dilution, and it should only be done as part of a diversified portfolio. Asset Match is targeted exclusively at investors who are sufficiently wealthy and sophisticated to understand these risks and make their own investment decisions.
If you have registered with Asset Match as a shareholder of a company on the platform, you are reminded that you will need to certify that you are either a High Net Worth, Certified Sophisticated Investor or Self-Certified Sophisticated Investor.
Instructions
- If you are interested in investing, please email us via dealing@assetmatch.com, confirming how much you are looking to invest and we will send you a completed application form to sign. Alternatively, you can download the form from the Overview tab and complete the relevant sections yourself. Please return the completed form along with a cheque (made payable to The West Berkshire Brewery PLC) to:
Mr T Lucas
Finance Director
West Berkshire Brewery
The Flour Barn
Frilsham Home Farm
Yattendon
Berkshire RG18 0XT
If possible, please email us a copy of the form to dealing@assetmatch.com, so that we can register your investment and update this page. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.
David Bruce Chairman
David’s forty-eight year entrepreneurial career in the international brewing industry and licensed trade started in 1966 when he joined Courage, Barclay & Simonds in Reading, Berkshire, as a brewery management trainee. Having learnt to brew, he became the Brewer and Sales Manager at Theakston’s Brewery in Yorkshire before co-founding not only Bruce’s Brewery and the Firkin Pubs in 1979 but also the Small Independent Brewers Association (SIBA) in 1980.
Having sold Bruce’s Brewery and the Firkin Pubs for £6.6 million before the age of forty, David became a co-founder and investor in a number of start-up breweries in Paris, Brooklyn, Denver and Seattle before returning to the UK to develop his pub interests.
In 1993, David became the largest private shareholder in Grosvenor Inns PLC and, as Development and Marketing Director, was responsible for rolling out The Slug & Lettuce chain of branded bars. In December 2000, David co-founded with Clive Watson (and became Chief Executive of) The Capital Pub Company PLC, which raised over £15 million under the Enterprise Investment Scheme, was floated on AIM in 2007 and was sold in July 2011 to Greene King for an enterprise value of £93million. This provided the original Enterprise Investment Scheme investors with a threefold return on their net of tax investment.
In November 2006, David became a founding investor in the Enterprise Investment Scheme-funded Country Food & Dining group of companies of which he is Chairman. To date, this group of companies has raised over £7.5 million which has been invested in eight farm shops, providing primarily locally-sourced produce and food and drink retailing through on-site cafés.
In October 2011, again with CliveWatson, David co-founded and became Chairman of The City Pub Company (East) PLC and The City Pub Company (West) PLC which have, between them, raised £8 million under the Enterprise Investment Scheme, and currently own seventeen free houses, including three microbreweries, between Bath and Norwich via London and Brighton.
Thomas Lucas Managing Director
Tom is an ACCA qualified accountant. He joined WBB in 2008 and has a thorough understanding of all aspects of the business having played an important role in the Company's development over the last two years.
Simon Robertson-Macleod Non-Executive Director
Simon has been involved in the drinks industry for over forty years. Having worked for Martell in Cognac and Deinhard in Koblenz, he joined Scottish & Newcastle Breweries in November 1973 and stayed with them for twenty-two years, his last role being Director of Major Accounts for William Younger & Company. He joined Fuller’s in October 1995 as National Accounts Controller (Brewers and Multiple Pub Groups) and retired in 2013 having overseen a growth of 400 per cent. in sales of cask London Pride. Simon is also a non-executive director of Ossett Brewery in Yorkshire.
Andrew Dickson Production Director