Alcohol-free brewer Big Drop is to launch a crowdfunding campaign to support further draught listings and expand its licensed brewing model internationally.
Big Drop co-founder Rob Fink
The campaign, on the Seedrs platform, has a £450,000 target, giving the business a ‘pre-money valuation’ of £11.3 million.
The company had a successful switch last year from contract brewing in the UK to brewing under licence when it entered into a partnership with In Good Company, the owner of Fourpure and Magic Rock.
The model means that both parties benefit: IGC brews and sells the beer; Big Drop utilises the brewery’s sales team and, with minimal expenses, can invest heavily in growth capital.
The new funds will be used to replicate the licence model in other regions, such as the USA, where Big Drop has been contract brewing since 2021 and where various breweries have expressed interest in taking a licence.
Elsewhere, a new brewing partner in Singapore has been awarded a licence and will act as an export hub for South East Asia. Likewise, a licence has been awarded in Australia.
“The licence model works,” said Rob Fink, co-founder of Big Drop. “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.
Rob added: “Pouring a pint of AF beer from a bar-top font helps destigmatise any remaining notions that it is somehow an inferior option to an alcoholic beer. We have a plan to encourage trial in pubs through merchandise, competitions and that old favourite: free beer.
“And from a purely financial point of view, having Big Drop on draught will mean more sales — a whopping 95% of beer sales in pubs are on draught.”
According to research published earlier this month by KAM, 31% of customers have left a venue early and/or disappointed because of poor low and no options. And 40% will research low and no options ahead of time if they’re visiting a pub, bar, or restaurant and not drinking alcohol.
Other plans in the pipeline include stretching the boundaries of its pioneering ‘reduced amylase’ brewing method to develop a 0.0% beer but still without the removal of alcohol, as well as expanding the flavour/style ranges.
From Big Drop’s own dedicated research and development facilities, it strives to accomplish this without compromising its own standards of consistency, stability, and compliance that it feels is unmatched in alcohol-free craft beer.
Since launching in 2016 as the world’s first brewer dedicated to alcohol-free beer, Big Drop has won more than 100 international beer awards, including seven ‘world’s best’ titles at the World Beer Awards (a record for any UK brewer).
It has also attracted significant investment from Mark Hunter, former global chief executive of Molson Coors; Stefan Orlowski, former European president at Heineken, and Alastair Smith, former CEO of drinks analyst IWSR.
