Craft brewer raises NZD 500,000 in half an hour
As crowdfunding goes, this was quick! The well-known Kiwi craft brewer Yeastie Boys recently conducted a highly anticipated share offer. On 28 January 2015 fans of Yeastie Boys’ award-winning ales were able to buy a piece of the company, via an equity crowdfunding campaign on PledgeMe.
Amazingly, in merely thirty minutes Yeastie Boys raised NZD 500,000 (EUR 324,000 / USD 371,000) which represents 12.5 percent of the company. The founders Stu McKinlay and Sam Possenniskie will each retain 39.37 percent of the company.
You have to give it to Yeastie Boys and their fans: they are an optimistic lot. Yeastie Boys is a six-year old company. Revenues have risen rapidly over the past few years, but profits have been scarce, as you would suspect from an upstart. In their financial year 2014/2015 Yeastie Boys expect revenues in excess of NZD 600,000, yet forecast zero profits. For the next financial year they have already projected a loss of NZD 49,000. Only after then do they hope to turn a profit.
Yeastie Boys didn’t publish their beer sales volume. But we know that the sixty odd craft brewers represent about 2 percent of beer sales in New Zealand, according to an ANZ craft beer industry report released in August 2014. This is unremarkable compared with the U.S. (over 8 percent) and given the long history of craft beer in New Zealand.
In volumes terms that’s even more modest as total beer consumption is around 3 million hl. But considering that New Zealand is only 4.4 million people (or roughly the size of Australia’s largest city Sydney) that’s probably not too bad.
Yeastie Boys’ new found capital is to go towards their UK expansion. As in New Zealand, where their beers are produced under contract, they have teamed up with a local brewer. The prominent Scottish brewer BrewDog will contract brew for them as of April this year. This is to help them take part in Wetherspoon International Craft Brewer’s Showcase, which will see their beer hit the taps of more than 900 pubs across Britain and Ireland.
This event is similar to the same pub chain’s 2014 International Real Ale Festival in which the Yeastie Boys also participated.
