Welcome to the first update to all our new investors. Welcome to the club.
I will endeavour to update you all once a quarter on how we are progressing at Siren, and over and above what you will generally see on our social media feeds, give you a little more meat on the bone as to how things are progressing.
First up, after a whirlwind, full on, tiring but exhilarating end to 2018 working on raising the funds for our next progression, we were also working hard on some great new brews, laying the foundations for starting the new year with some new hires and closing out a solid 2018.
Here are just a few highlights:
- Final Revenue £3.86m vs projections in funding documents of £3.61m
- Sound Wave Kegs in Q4 averaged 630 Kegs/month which was a 100% increase on Q1
- Suspended in Series became our 2nd highest keg volume in Q4
- Web Orders were nearly double in Q4 for the year before, which is mainly down to the hard work of our team getting our new web site live
- The Tap Yard has been going from strength to strength, engaging with our local community and customers travelling in.
Starting with us at the beginning of 2019 we have a new distribution manager in the North and two new Regional Sales Managers covering London. Joining us we have Lucy Clarke, formerly of Beavertown in a similar northern distribution role, Jamie Percival, formerly of Sambrooks and Peter Kennelly who was previously with Brewdog and Eebria. We are looking forward to their contribution for 2019.
On that subject, we have started 2019 in a very positive fashion:
- Revenue for Jan and Feb have tracked as an increase of 43% on last year.
- Sound Wave kegs, whilst dropping off the highs of our Q4, are still a exciting 75% increase on the same period last year.
- We are about to kick off a relationship with 7Bone burger restaurants in the South to provide Sound Wave and Santo across all 11 sites.
Our investment plans continue at pace. We currently have 2x250HL tanks on their way for the beginning of April, a new automated CIP system, and the lease for Unit 4 (whilst progressing slowly) is nearly there.
We have ordered our Canning Line, Box Erector and all the necessary ancillaries and are hopeful we can commission the line at the end of June. We have added a sneaky little extra to our canning line and are very excited to announce that we will be putting Broken Dream out in a nitro can.
Our new designer has been commissioned and we are very excited to see how our packaging evolves.
With the help of a few of our committed investors, who were able to brave the snow and attend our blending day, we have put together the final blend for Maiden 2018, our anniversary blend and this will be launching in a few weeks, so please keep your eyes peeled for your early announcements for investors.
In other news, our Head Brewer has now left and started his journey back to the US with his family. Kyle has been a great fit for Siren and leaves us in a great position. Dave Hall has stepped up to Lead Brewer and is in charge of managing production on a day to day basis. He is doing a great job, and this allows us the freedom to take our time with our next head brewer and make sure we find the right person.
In investor news you should have received an update about how to access your rewards, sorry it's taken a while, but we wanted to try and get it all tied up together. I have a list of dates for you regarding big party events below, and we are trying to fix the date for our investor only party.
Some of you will receive free entry to these events as per the rewards, and some will have early access to tickets. All will be communicated by email.
The dates are:
18th May - Project Barista
20th July - Summer Party
21st September & 2nd November details to be announced.
I look forward to seeing many of you over the next few months, and hope you get to enjoy the benefits of being a Siren Team Member. Don't forget to contact us on awaken@sirencraftbrew.com if you have any questions.
