West Australian Old Young Distillery achieved a series of firsts when it took home World’s Best Craft Gin Producer at the Icon of Gin awards in London, as its private funding round opened in Australia.
At Icon of Gin, Old Young also took home Brand Innovator of the Year. For distillery founder and CEO James Young, winning the awards was a career highlight, but “to win it midway through a capital raise is biblical”.
“Setting all these records is icing on the cake of an already spectacular month. This is the first time an Australian distillery has ever won Craft Producer of the Year, and only the second time an Australian gin producer has won Brand Innovator of the Year – Four Pillars winning the category in 2022,” Young said.
“Central to winning Craft Producer of the Year is our signature gin, Old Young’s 1829. The gin’s base is Tuscan juniper berries, with the Swan Valley and surrounds offering some of the finest botanicals I’ve seen.
“Winning Brand Innovator of the year is equally important – when the pandemic hit, I decided to launch Australia’s most unique gin subscription service, The Juniper Society. It’s like Netflix - but Gin! Each month you get a brand new, never to be repeated gin delivered to your door for $59! We’ve released 30 editions so far, and these allow my creative side to run wild,” Young added.
Meanwhile, the distillery became equity crowdfunding’s biggest Western Australian raise ever, the biggest raise in Australia this financial year, and the biggest alcohol raise ever in Australia.
Old Young’s raise was also the fastest to $2 million in the state, reaching the target after 6h 45mins. It reached $500,000 in the first 30 minutes, and it’s $2.7 million target was achieved after 23 hours.
With news of its award wins, online sales for the brand spiked 560 per cent. Expressions of Interest in its Birchal Equity Crowdfunding raise almost doubled from 1722 to 3303, and the average EOI investment amount was $3633, almost 3 times the average Birchal figure of $1300.
Birchal said having EOI enquiries spike so dramatically in the back half of the campaign is almost unheard of, especially when an average campaign gets only 800 enquiries.
Birchal CEO Matt Vitale said craft breweries have a history of performing very well because their fans are fiercely loyal and want their favourite beer to flourish.
“The runaway success of craft distiller Old Youngs not only continues this trend but has taken it up a notch – it’s the biggest alcohol raise Australia has ever seen!
“James Young and his team ran a textbook crowdfunding campaign – the integration of investor communications, PR, social media marketing, an entertaining and informative investor video, and investor webinars, kept potential shareholders engaged from beginning to end.
“And now they’ve set all these amazing records – they should be really proud,” Vitale said.
The raise went live for people who registered their EOI at 9am on Tuesday, 7 March (Perth time) and all shares were exhausted before the share offer was made available to the public.
The company is valued at $32.5 million, and a little less than 10 per cent of the business went up for grabs.
Young said: “The huge level of support we’ve received is incredibly gratifying. I’ve been speaking to investors throughout this process and so many of them have followed us right back to when we launched in 2016.
“To raise this amount of money in such a short time in tricky economic times is a testament to the creativity and passion we bring to work every day. I’m so excited for our plans and to have 855 new investors to share that ride with.”
Over the last six years, Old Young has achieved an average growth of 90 per cent a year. In 2022, it had $5.3 million in revenue and 71,835 bottles filled. The distillery has turned over $14.9 million since launch, 270,000 bottles filled.
The distillery will triple production capacity by bringing online a 500L next generation still, as well as an automatic bottling line that can handle over 250,000 bottles per year.
Young said the money raised will be used to employ an east coast sales team as well as building international export markets.
Some will also be used to supercharge The Juniper Society’s database of paying members up to 10,000 gin lovers per month, which will have a huge impact on the company’s bottom line.
Meanwhile, Young is planning to build a monumental ‘Cathedral of Gin’ building in the Swan Valley and is already working with some of Australia’s and the world’s top architectural firms, whose designs will compete to win the project.
(Source: Old Young's).
Young’s other gin project – Gingin Gin – is a modern classic gin with ingredients sourced from the Western Australian town, Gingin. The gin is made using the finest sourced ingredients from Gingin’s abundant food bowl, as well as botanicals from the Mediterranean and exotics from the Far East.
Young said he has plans for RTDs, bottled cocktails, a NoLo product, brown spirit production, a new tasting room experience and a brand refresh.
