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Premium tonic maker East Imperial has raised £325k to boost working capital and help realise growth opportunities in the US and Asia Pacific markets.
The London Stock Exchange listed company secured the money through a placing of almost 30 million new ordinary shares.
Founded in 2012, East Imperial makes its high-end mixers in New Zealand to an 1903 East African recipe using all-natural ingredients, supplying luxury hotels and hospitality venues.
CEO and executive chairman Anthony Burt said that working capital constraints throughout 2023 had slowed expansion plans and made for “a challenging year”.
“However, we navigated the operational and cost obstacles and implemented important initiatives to drive further sales while improving margins,” he added.
“Our focused development plans, combined with strong sales teams and experienced local partners, provide an exciting opportunity to capitalise on our investments in building a scalable platform for our premium beverages.
“We have been adding more notable tier 1 clientele to our list of customers while continuing to manage our cost base closely.”
The proceeds from the placing are expected to give East Imperial a cash runway until April 2024.
Morning update
The FTSE 100 is up 0.4% so far this morning to 7,516.40pts.
It’s a quiet day for fmcg news on the market, but early risers include Kerry Group, up 4% to €79.82, Just Eat Takeaway, up 3.9% to 1,256p, Hilton Food Group, up 2.9% 816p, and Ocado, up 2.6% to 590.2p.
Haleon is leading the early fallers, down 1.9% to 315.3p, while McBride is down 1.6% to 69.7p and Compass Group is down 0.5% to 2,098p.
Yesterday in the City
The FTSE 100 nudged up 0.1% to 7,493.45pts yesterday.
Premier Foods dipped into the red at the end of trading despite reporting its “best ever” Christmas. The Bisto and Oxo owner boostes sales by 14.4% in Q3 but its shares ended the day down 0.3% to 139.8p.
Primark owner Associated British Foods benefitted from a strong festive season for the discount fashion chain, sending shares 0.9% higher to 2,289p.
Elswhere, risers included Just Eat Takeaway, up 4.9% to 1,206p, while Compass Group and Science in Sport fell by 2.4% to 2,114p and 3.8% to 496.4p respectively.
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