Irish Whiskey Distillery LAUNCHES €1.5m crowdfund for next phase of growth – Irish Whiskey News
Irish Whiskey Distillery LAUNCHES €1.5m crowdfund
for next phase of growth
Award winning Sliabh Liag Distillers to build new distillery as sales grow 50% YoY
Product range expanding, including new whiskeys
Donegal’s place on the fast-growing Irish whiskey market to emulate Islay’s in Scotland
DONEGAL, 18/08/20: Sliabh Liag Distillers, (pronounced Sleeve League, meaning ‘mountain of flagstones’) today announces it is seeking €1.5m in investment via crowdfunding to fuel the next phase of its expansion. The Crowdcube campaign will launch on Wednesday 26th August and run for four weeks, pre-registration is now open at www.sliabhliagdistillers.com/crowdfunding.
This fundraising round will allow Sliabh Liag Distillers’s growing band of followers to join a select group including a drinks industry multinational (Asahi), sophisticated investors and Donegal locals as investors in a sector that has doubled in size over the last decade. The investment will be eligible for EIS tax relief in the UK (EIIS tax relief in Ireland) and will come with a range of rewards from having your name etched on a copper still for all time to receiving a bespoke Donegal ‘Silkie’ fishing fly. The opportunity is set to attract many sophisticated investors from amongst the Irish diaspora, drinks enthusiasts and others looking for interesting long-term investments.
Sliabh Liag Distillers was founded by two Irish ‘scatterlings’ (returnees) with a simple aim: to reclaim the distilling heritage of Donegal and recreate the rich authentic spirits of the area from a time before the industrial revolution. Its husband and wife founders, James and Moira Doherty, want to make the Sliabh Liag peninsula to Irish whiskey what Islay is to Scotch.
Since inception, Sliabh Liag Distillers has grown from strength-to-strength, meeting demands from the international premium drinks sector for a better selection of authentic Irish whiskeys. The sector has been dominated by a handful of mainstream brands for a century, but in the last decade, a renaissance of unique, small-batch spirits, has seen it double in size.
Sliabh Liag Distillers is creating a new area of growth with its distinctive tasting products that are gaining cachet among Ireland’s most renowned food critics, chefs and restaurateurs, alongside a sizable social media following and international press coverage.
It is this hard-earned prestige and following that will, by Autumn 2021, see Sliabh Liag Distillers commence its phased move to Ardara, its new headquarters and future home of its current five exciting brands, and many new ones to come. Work on the site is already underway, and will increase the Company’s production capacity to 500,000 litres of alcohol per annum with room for expansion, as it anticipates growing international demand.
Accompanying the renaissance of Irish whiskey has been a resurgence of whiskey tourism. In time, the site at Ardara will feature tiered levels of tours that will take visitors through the distillery, the distilling process, the history of whiskey and local poitín-making, alongside the heritage of the area.
James Doherty, Managing Director of Sliabh Liag, said: “We are reclaiming the distilling heritage of Donegal and in doing so we have founded the first legal whiskey distillery in the county for over 175 years. Both my grandfathers were illicit poitín men. This is in my DNA. It is my legacy and one that I think my grandfathers would be proud of.
“I want to share this legacy – this opportunity to cement artisan Irish whiskey as the world’s best – with those who want to come along with us on this exciting journey through Ireland’s long, almost lost distilling heritage. Join us, or as we say in Irish, ‘Bigi Linn’.”
Moira Doherty, Director of Sliabh Liag, said: “It’s been an interesting year to say the least. On one hand we pivoted into making hand sanitiser for the community here in Donegal, while on the other we laid down the first barrel of smoky single malt Irish whiskey in the county since 1841.
“The Ardara Distillery is the natural next step in our journey to revive the Irish whiskey tradition; to bring it back to the communities while taking the name of Donegal to the furthest reaches we can. After a century where a few big players have dominated, this is a real chance for you to get involved in bringing it back home where it belongs – it will be a part of your story and legacy as much as it is our own.”
INVESTOR RELATIONS
Shares are priced at £75.00. Total valuation of Sliabh Liag Distillers is £14,988,300.
The share class offered to investors on Crowdcube are A Ordinary Shares with pre-emption and voting rights. The shares will be issued to Crowdcube Nominees Limited to hold the shares on behalf of investors. Five share classes exist:
Founder Ordinary, two votes per share, pre-emption rights over all classes of shares
A Ordinary, one vote per share, pre-emption rights within own class
B Ordinary, no votes, pre-emption rights within own class, put call agreement
C Ordinary, no votes, pre-emption rights within own class
5% Cumulative Redeemable Preference Shares
Specific advice should be sought prior to making any investment in Sliabh Liag Distillers DAC, based on the particular circumstances of a prospective investor. This is not a regulated investment and investment is only appropriate for investors who have a high attitude to risk. For investors in Ireland this is not an offering for the purposes of Section 68 of the Companies Act 2014.
Notes
- Sliabh Liag Distillers (pronounced ‘sleeve league’) is independently owned.
- SLD is committed to reclaiming the distilling heritage of Donegal. In addition to An Dúlamán Irish Maritime Gin and An Dúlamán Santa Ana Armada Strength Gin, the company also produces the blended Silkie Irish Whiskey, Dark Silkie Irish Whiskey and Assaranca Vodka.
- SLD has begun construction of its new distillery at Ardara, co Donegal. The state-of-the-art facility will combine the latest distilling technology and a unique “all grains in” process with ancient Donegal distilling knowhow to create a whiskey unlike that found in the rest of Ireland.
- On Wednesday 26th August, the company launches its €1.5m fundraising campaign on Crowdcube.com. (NB: it will only be live on the Crowdcube website to non-registered users on 28th August).
- Silkie, Dark Silkie, An Dúlamán and Assaranca are all distributed by Vine Distribution Services in the UK. Established in 2000, Vine Distribution Services (VDS UK Limited) are importers and distributors of premium drinks and other FMCG brands in the UK. Founded by Steve Brown and Paul Macgregor, VDS is a sales, marketing and distribution company that specialises in the development of premium alcoholic and non-alcoholic brands.
