As I write the update for 2022 in retrospect, I reflect back on the start of last year and the hope of that light we could see at the end of the tunnel. Well it turns out that light was in fact another train!
Only mildly kidding, 2022 was a difficult year but one that I and the Siren team again take strength from. Our tough, battling attitude and approach to keep doing the best we can and to keep being bold, kept us taking each day as it came and fighting at the sharp end.
There have been a fair few challenges throughout the year, January and February were so much tougher than normal with plenty of nerves still around regarding Covid and Omicron, and whilst the on-trade (pubs) picked up, it was slow and tough.
The city centre office commuters decided that office dwelling on a Friday wasn't a thing any more and the impact has been very noticeable. Coupled with the death of our Queen, state mourning and the huge impact to city centres of the rail strikes, our hospitality customers have had a really tough time.
This has clearly impacted our trade, and this can be demonstrated in that we have historically (Covid not included) seen an uplift of 20-28% in our trade business from H1 to H2, and that just wasn't to be seen in 2022.
It’s probably Independent shops that have struggled the most this year. The love they had been shown through lockdown seems to have subsided, whether that’s time, convenience or just the impact of rising mortgages and inflation have had on buying habits.
Of course we’ve also seen the impacts with closure after closure throughout the year, including online companies such as HonestBrew, and even Beerhawk, backed by AB Inbev, winding down its online can/bottle offering entirely.
For those of you who managed to make the Time Hops Investor event you will know some of the headwinds faced through last year, including these headlines:
- CO2 price increase from £300 per tonne to £850 per tonne (And for Sept the surcharge was a further £3,000 per tonne
- Cardboard more than doubled in price (boxes for all cans to trade and separate boxes for web deliveries)
- Chemicals nearly all doubled (Caustic even higher)
- KeyKegs up by 25%
- Electricity more than 500% increase
- Inbound and outbound delivery costs up 22%
- Oil has more than trebled - not helped by the removal of Red Oil Tax relief
This is just a small snippet, and as a bonus, our malt went from £500 per tonne to over £750 per tonne at the end of the year, with some malts increasing over 80%. Cheers!
On to more positive news. We managed to just about make a tiny profit out of an increase in revenue to just over £6.7m
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
| Sales | £4,690,201 | £5,375,841 | £6,399,340 | £6,733,621 |
| Cost of Sales | £2,268,996 | £3,130,876 | £3,554,908 | £3,788,984 |
| Operating Expenses | £2,303,560 | £2,047,651 | £2,582,667 | £2,842,001 |
| Interest Charges | £51,712 | £74,015 | £54,141 | £54,313 |
| Profit before Tax | £65,933 | £123,299 | £207,623 | £48,322 |
| Depreciation | £220,443 | £204,276 | £282,483 | £290,261 |
| EBITDA | £286,376 | £327,575 | £490,106 | £338,583 |
As you can see from the numbers, it's tough going, and a lot of work to make £48k profit, however, we did make profit and we will celebrate that fact. There are many that did not in 2022.
From the graph above you will notice that our web shop revenue has dropped dramatically from £1.2m to £1m to £505k. Whilst this is disappointing, I believe it reflects an amazing opportunity, and the fact that we have grown from what was a revenue of £91k to £505k is a great achievement in itself.
2022 Highlights
There are many fantastic highlights from 2022, the most memorable for us was our Time Hops release and festival at Reading University. In the spirit of being ambitious and bold, and love of bringing the stories of our beers, origins and insight, Time Hops was a fantastic collaboration bringing together Siren, The Craft Beer Channel, Yakima Chief and some of the most revered brewers of our industry.
Not only did we get the most unbelievable insight into how beers such as Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and The Alchemist’s Focal Banger, but we got to interview them (even Ken Grossman- directly) to tell their story as to how they played their part in bringing a brand new hop to life in their beer. The project was an initial idea from Steve our Barrel Whisperer and with the help of the rest of our team became a huge monster of a project.
The beer we worked on with John Kimmich and the insight he gave to his thinking and approach has been put to great use and I personally love both One in a Million and our two new releases Immovable Object and Unstoppable Force, if you haven't tried these three, there aren't many left so use your investor discounts and get in quick.
I felt our re-imagining of CCC with Curiosity, Charm and Candour was a great success and certainly tested us and our knowledge. Keep an eye out for Crescendo - the culmination of this project, for one of our anniversary releases - though please keep that quiet!
Whilst it's not a highlight in many ways, we rebrewed Mavka last year with the solitary aim of sending all the proceeds to support Ukrainians via the Red Cross, and we all managed to send over 21,000 euros.
Getting to brew with our near neighbours Double-Barrelled was a huge treat, we had a fun day BBQing with fun beers and memories made (in some cases memories were actually a little hazy). Other beery highlights included getting to brew with Robert from Stone Brewing in Richmond, and the release of Offbeat, a pilsner made with historic Hanna malt.
2023 - Ten Years of Siren
On to 2023 - we have a fun year in store. It's our 10th Anniversary, and there is a separate blog for all of the ideas and initiatives we have to celebrate this milestone.
From a business perspective, we have identified a few areas we were weak in over the last year or so and are busy putting effort into remedying them. We have a number of wins we are just waiting to finalise and they will be solid boosts to our potential for this year, including a blockbuster all box takeover of Beer52 for our anniversary, which whilst tight in margin is fantastic for this slow time of year.
We are also in the final throes of organising a Reading Tap Room which will be an amazing central place for all our customers to come down and get the full Siren experience. Expect Tank Fresh Lumina and Station Hill Pilsner, amazing food and great hospitality.
To complete this project we will be looking to raise funds via a Crowdfunder raise where any funds you put forward will be worth 150% of what you put in. This will allow us to make sure we can create the space this new venue deserves and we are sure it will become a beacon to pull people into Reading for our amazing beer scene.
Before that, we’ll be hosting a birthday party and beer festival here in Finchampstead. It sold out in just 3 days, however as always we have ring fenced some tickets for investors. Please book your spaces before Midday 20th February. Thanks to everyone who booked in early, it was an amazing response.
For more information about our Anniversary plans in general, take a look at the blog.
That’s all for now! We’ll be back soon to keep you posted on some of the projects for the year. In the meantime, a big thanks for all your support and we wish you a successful 2023.
