Alcohol-free brewer Big Drop is getting ready to return to the crowd to support plans for further on-trade listings and to expand its licence brewing model internationally.
Its latest campaign launches on the Seedrs platform later this month as the business aims to raise at least £450k.
The move follows a switch last year from contract brewing in the UK to brewing under licence as Big Drop entered a partnership with In Good Company (IGC), the owner of Fourpure and Magic Rock.
Big Drop said the model, which sees IGC brew and sell the beer, benefited both parties, with the alcohol-free brand able to minimise expenses and invest heavily in growth capital.
Funds from the crowd round will be used to replicate the licence model in other regions, including the US, where Big Drop has been contract brewing since 2021. Elsewhere, a new brewing partner in Singapore has been awarded a licence and will act as an export hub for south east Asia, with a similar licence awarded in Australia.
“The licence model works,” said Big Drop co-founder Rob Fink. “Contract brewing, or running a brewery, whilst also trying to invest significant marketing dollars on growth is no longer a viable business model, as it was pre-2022.
“By leveraging a brewing partner’s production and sales capacity, we don’t need to spend cash on working capital but instead can concentrate our investment on growing the brand, just as we have done in the UK.”
In the UK, Big Drop’s focus on growth includes supporting draught listings as it signs up more pub groups to join the likes of Mitchells & Butlers and Hall & Woodhouse.
The brand is also listed in the off-trade by Ocado, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons.
Big Drop valued the business at £11.3m ahead of the new round, which is a decline on the £14.2m achieved in a 2022 fundraise on Seedrs.
Launched in 2016 by Fink and James Kindred, Big Drop claimed to be the world’s first brewer dedicated to alcohol-free beer.
It has since raised more than £10m in investment from several crowd rounds and institutional investors, including a £3.5m Series A round in 2021.
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