Old Young's raises $2.7m within 24 hours

Old Young’s Distillery became equity crowdfunding's biggest alcohol in Australia exceeding its target of $2 million by raising $2.7 million within 24 hours.

When the Swan Valley distillery was named Craft Producer of the Year and Brand Innovator of the Year at the Icons of Gin awards, online sales of the WA gin spiked by 560 per cent and crowd-funding platform Birchal that ran the equity raise said that expressions of interest almost doubled lifting to 3300.

The equity raise went live for people who registered their EOI at 9.00am on Tuesday 7 March (Perth time) and all shares were exhausted before the share offer was even made available to the public. The company is valued at $32.5 million, and a little less than 10% of the business went up for grabs.

Old Young’s Distillery's founder James Young said: “Winning Craft Producer of the Year and Brand Innovator of the Year at The Icons of Gin competition in London was a definite career highlight, but to win it midway through a capital raise is biblical - I swear someone is looking after me above,” said . “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.”

The share offer follows a booming time for Old Young’s, which has achieved an Average Growth of 90% per annum over the last 6 years since 2016 ($5.3M revenue in 2022 with 71,835 bottles filled, and $14.9M turnover since launch - that’s 270,000 bottles filled).

Matt Vitale, CEO of equity crowdfunding platform Birchal said, “Craft breweries have a history of performing very well on Birchal, and that’s because their fans are fiercely loyal and want their favourite beer to flourish. The runaway success of craft distiller Old Young's 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!”

The money raised will be used to employ an east coast sales team as well as building international export markets. Old Young’s will also 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.

When the pandemic hit, Young launched gin subscription service, The Juniper Society and some of the monies raised will be invested to increase the subscriber base and some to build Old Young's Cathedral of Gin in the Swan Valley.