A belated welcome to 2020!
It’s been a hectic start to the year at Siren, but with 7th anniversary celebrations almost upon us it seems a very appropriate time to update you on our first full year since crowdfunding, along with some plans for the months ahead.
There’s no denying that 2019 was eventful and challenging. Implementing large capital projects whilst also recruiting for a new Head Brewer certainly kept the pressure on us all. But the team rallied, striving hard to get things done and all-in-all it goes down as a successful year.
Whilst we didn’t quite hit the heights we wanted to from a profit point of view, and I do feel we have more work to do, I believe we have laid out some solid foundations to build on. We are working through finalising the accounts and will send through a full report when we can, however the headlines are looking like this:
- Turnover: £4,970,000 (30k shy of £5m & 28% growth year-on-year, beating our projections)
- Profit: EBITDA of around £240,000
- Small Pack 24% overall in revenue
- Small Pack 19% overall in volume
- 118% Growth in Soundwave kegs
Throughout the year we have seen great success in both our Soundwave and Suspended in... sales, both at times have provided a challenge to meet demand. Whilst we are continuing our strategy to drive permanent lines in the on-trade through these products, we are working equally as hard to ensure that we have a strong limited edition range to keep our customers excited. We’ve picked up many new accounts, particularly within the independent sector, which has provided a strong base to grow our sales around.
Off-trade sales have also grown, however, we see this area as a real opportunity for the coming few years. Our supermarket presence has changed, in that we are not selling through M&S at the moment, but have added Morrisons late in 2019. This relationship started off with Soundwave, Calypso and Pompelmocello, and has shown a very encouraging rate of sale.
Pompelmocello was in fact the 2nd highest 440ml seller during their initial 3 week festival, which is no mean feat for a 6% grapefruit sour beer with lactose. On top of that, Soundwave has been so well received in the group that the listing has now been extended to over 350 of their stores. Broken Dream was included in a 12 week run in the Christmas period and also performed very well.
Liquid Mistress dropped out of our flagship range, which I feel sad about considering its starring role in the early days of the brewery. Unfortunately it’s very difficult to prioritise keeping beers like that in stock given demand for other lines. Once our capacity has increased, we may look at re-introducing a Red IPA to the flagship range, but at the moment it’s not on the cards
Our Tap Yard and Web Sales have continued to add strong growth to the business throughout 2019. The Tap Yard is now open from Wednesday through to Sunday and even picked up the RateBeer award for Best Tap Room in Berkshire. It continues to fill me with pride that we have managed to build such a great following who love to visit an industrial estate at the back end of Berkshire in their spare time! We are still working hard to build the best experience we can, and whilst we are currently recruiting for a GM, we are still building and developing our service.
Unfortunately with one of the main access roads to the brewery having been closed since September (continuing for around a year), this has seriously impacted our business, and we have seen weekday revenues including Friday drop by more than 60% at times.
One of the areas we have been trying to develop (and are in the middle of at the moment) is to expand the inside space for Friday evenings and weekends. We are aware that when the weather is too cold, raining, windy etc, our space can get packed and people don’t want to head over knowing that the Tap Yard will be too busy. We have made some changes, and intend to build on this further, but for now the “Warehouse Garden” is starting to grow in popularity.
Things to look out for in 2020
Firstly, we’ll be celebrating our 7th Anniversary next week! Click here for all the ways you can get involved, including a unique Maiden blending experience at the brewery and a national launch.
This is the year that we will get to put our 250Hl tanks outside. We have two that are built and we are likely to commission a third fairly immediately. The impact this will have on our efficiency cannot be overstated, and whilst the extra fermentation capacity is handy, the benefits to our team’s workload and sanity having a tank that can hold four full brews is huge.
You may have come across a beer called Refractions out in the wild recently, with some excitement. The plan is for this to be a pilot platform that can transition into a new Flagship 4.2% hazy session IPA, hopefully to be launched around May/June. Watch this space for progress.
Project Barista will be making an annual return on May 16th, where we plan to turn Hogwood Industrial Estate into a Coffee and Beer extravaganza, tickets will go on sale shortly. Before that, you can also look forward to a return of White Tips, our spring seasonal Belgian Session IPA.
We are currently planning our investor AGM for July 4th, so please put this in your diary if that was part of your perks! Details are yet to be thrashed out, but what we can say for sure is this... The event will be held at Reading University, this gives us the capacity we will need, that we don’t have at the brewery. It will also give us a stage, AV equipment, and the ability to put on live music in the afternoon. It’s also MUCH more accessible by public transport. We will have food traders there for the event, and the plan is to have a presentation and Q&A for investors, and then to open up to a wider audience later in the afternoon (with other investors getting first priority).
We’ll be following all expert advice surrounding COVID-19. If this impacts event plans then we’ll communicate as soon as possible.
To all our investors, thanks for the support you have shown throughout 2019. We are constantly striving to do better, be better and build on what we have achieved so far. 2020 is shaping up to be a great year, and it’s a pleasure to have you along for the journey.
