USA, OH: Scotland’s BrewDog seeking to raise up to $50 mln for US expansion

BrewDog, the self-styled “punk” brewer, is seeking to raise up to $50 mln from American ale enthusiasts to expand in the US despite only having a niche following in the world’s biggest craft beer market and no sales there for the past year, The Guardian reported on August 4.

The Scottish company has launched its biggest crowdfunding campaign by asking US consumers to buy at least two shares for $47.50 each of a new US company that will be valued at $250 mln.

The “equity for punks USA” fundraising will sell up to a fifth of BrewDog USA Inc, with the remainder owned by BrewDog and its existing 46,000 crowdfunded investors.

BrewDog has almost finished building a 9,000 sq metre (100,000 sq ft) brewery in Columbus, Ohio, scheduled to open this year. The company will use the money to finance production at the site and to open bars, depending on the amount raised.

As in the UK, investors will get a range of perks, including 5% off drinks in BrewDog bars around the world, a free tour of the Columbus brewery and two tickets to the US company’s beer-fuelled annual meeting.

BrewDog has funded its rapid expansion in Britain and construction of the Columbus site by raising a total of £26 mln from small investors, many of whom were fans of its beer, in the past seven years. It is now seeking to raise substantially more than that in just six months from US beer fans.

BrewDog’s founder James Watt said he thought the share offer would be a success because of the enthusiasm for craft beer in the US and the attraction of owning a stake in a brewery. BrewDog has also raised its profile with a TV show about beer on the US Esquire network presented by Watt and his co-founder, Martin Dickie, he said.

BrewDog has sold beer in the US since 2008 through chains such as Whole Foods. But Watt said transporting the beer from Scotland made it more expensive and less fresh than it should be. BrewDog halted US sales a year ago to differentiate the older, pricier beer from the product that will be brewed in Columbus.

Watt said: “We’ve got a decent but small customer base but the logistics made it unfeasible to scale up our ambitions in the US without making beer there.

“Hey, it’s a gamble. Will we be able to pull this off? Who knows? But it’s a great opportunity for people to make an investment in the business and as we’ve shown in the UK people make a fairly good return on their investment.”

The US is the fastest-growing craft beer market in the world with sales of $22.3 bln, according to BrewDog. While total US beer consumption shrinks, craft beer is forecast to grow from 13% of the market to 20% by 2020.

Watt said $50 mln was the maximum BrewDog hoped to raise but only $5 mln was needed to kickstart beer production in Columbus. “It’s not $50 mln or go back to Scotland. It’s on a sliding scale,” he said.

BrewDog chose Columbus in the midwest for its US base because craft beer is popular there but the market has plenty of room to grow, unlike on the east and west coasts.

04 August, 2016