It’s been a very busy time for us since the crowdfunding finalised in January, as our team have been working away to deliver on both the investor rewards, and of course the significant investments, improvements and growth that we set out to achieve.
Here's what we've been up to...
We’ve waited a while since the last update to make sure we’re providing substantial information, so many thanks for your patience as always. We’ll aim to provide you all with updates on a quarterly basis, although this may at times be more or less frequent depending on the progress of projects and activities that have our focus at the time. This is separate to emails with early access to beers and events - they’ll still hit your inbox whenever possible.
Investor Rewards
All investor rewards are now available to claim/collect/book/access or otherwise depending on what they are. Each has been communicated by email to the relevant groups of people. If you are missing anything, or have any questions on this, please contact us on awaken@sirencraftbrew.com so we can make sure it’s sorted out as a priority.
Email Communications
In order to make sure the right people receive the right information we communicate primarily via email. At the bottom of these messages there is the following option: “You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.” Unsubscribing may mean that you miss out on important information, although we will aim to make sure we update different platforms when possible. Updating your preferences will allow you to opt-in to the types of emails that interest you. Please let us know if you are ever having any issues receiving information from us.
Q1 Performance
We achieved a strong result in Q1, with turnover of £959k representing 28% growth year-on-year. We’re on target with our 2019 projections. Increasing the coverage of our sales team has helped to drive this, and most pleasingly the number was not generated with any large one-off contracts. Instead, it’s the result of more permanent Siren lines throughout the UK. We actually delivered 1,874 kegs of Soundwave in Q1 alone - that’s a 126% increase year-on-year. The early part of the calendar year, especially January, are notoriously difficult to navigate for the on-trade, so all-in-all we’re delighted with this progress.
Investment
As you know, our crowdfunding opportunity came about to enable significant investment into brewing and packaging, centred around a state-of-the-art canning line. We’re pleased to report some exciting progress in these projects.
- We have ordered a CFT 10-head canning line. This line has the potential to exceed our current bottling QC levels, which we already set very high. It will have the capacity to fill up to 6,000 cans per hour. We also have a labeller to give us the flexibility of smaller runs. This is due land with us in June to be commissioned at the start of July.
- We will be able to fill both 330ml and 440ml cans. In addition, we have purchased an automatic de-palletiser to load the cans and an automatic boxer to pack them. This means we can efficiently pack into cases of 12 along with 4 can fridge packs.
- To allow the space for all this new equipment, along with the additional storage of cans and cardboard that is required, we have taken on an additional 2,500 sq. ft. unit. For those that have visited the brewery, you will recognise it as the ‘fourth one along’ next to our existing site.
- In order to try and keep up with demand, we also need additional tank space. We have had built four new 240hL fermentation vessels which are waiting to be installed. We’ve also brought in a new 100hL Brite Beer Tank (BBT) which is due to be installed next week.
- Numerous other improvements are also moving forward. We have a new Hop Cannon on the way, which will enable more efficient and impactful dry-hopping. We’ve laid out our new lab facility and hard-piping plans. It’s all coming together.
Brand Refresh
The introduction of cans to our range presents a huge branding opportunity, indeed much of the success of cans vs bottles over the past few years can, in part, be attributed to the increased canvas size available to designers and the effect this has on shelves.
Our packaging has not been touched for a number of years, so we have taken this opportunity to freshen up the look and feel of our brand across the board. Our brief was to stay true to the Siren storytelling ethos, paying tribute to the illustrative style that has served us so well, while introducing design that shines in the current market.
You will see this roll-out across the board inline with our first can releases in early July.
Projects & Events
- Our brewery Tap Yard continues to go from strength to strength. We’ve extended opening to include Wednesdays & Sundays, with both proving very popular already. We’re about to take delivery of an external kiosk, which we’ll fit out as a pizza kitchen. Although rotating street food works exceptionally at the weekends, we’re confident that an in-house food offering will be a great addition for our industrial estate neighbours at lunchtime, and visiting locals in the evenings.
- Festival wise we’ve been busy with our own Project Barista, which saw an incredible sold-out gathering of 600 coffee and beer fanatics this past weekend. We’ve also been pouring Siren near and far - hosting bars at the likes of Craft Theory in Reading, Craft Beer Rising in London and festivals in Florida, Budapest and Hong Kong - to name just three.
- We celebrated six years of brewing in March with Maiden ‘18. We were incredibly proud of the beer, and it sold out to trade in record time. We have some held back to try and keep it available through the Tap Yard and Online Shop. Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate around the UK!
- In April we released a special beer in collaboration with TATE called Thousand Things, to celebrate their Van Gogh exhibition. It has a really nice story that you can read about here. The exhibition became the most booked feature the TATE had ever put on, and the beer, which was sold throughout the galleries’ bars and restaurants, went down a treat. There is very little left, but we’ll try to squeeze in a re-brew for cans if possible.
- Along with plans to attend all our favourite UK festivals this year (including London Craft Beer Festival, Leeds International Beer Festival, Indy Man Beer Con & more), we also have some exciting appearances planned at non-beer events. We’ll be running the entire beer offering at Down at the Abbey, a new music festival set in historic ruins. We’ll be selling our brand new cans at CarFest 2019, and have agreed a pop-up bar for the entire run of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge Theatre. There is a lot more coming up, stay tuned for details.
If you need anything, or ever have any questions, we’re on awaken@sirencraftbrew.com.
Thanks again for your investment in Siren and passionate support ever since - we’re very excited to see all the work coming to life and can’t wait for you to share in our progress through the rest of the year.
