A QUICK glance along the top of the average bar or a typical supermarket’s shelves might lead you to believe the craft beer market is close to becoming saturated. But, as Edinburgh-based Innis & Gunn has shown by securing a £15 million investment from US private equity player L Catterton, the taps are not about to run dry any time soon.
Asked whether the sector was anywhere close to peaking, Innis & Gunn’s Dougal Sharp was emphatic that it is “only just at the start” of what it might achieve. L Catterton clearly agrees, and with its investment Innis & Gunn now feels it has the firepower and expertise to accelerate the development of what is already a rapidly-growing, global beer business.
That an investor of L Catterton’s magnitude has thrown its weight behind the Scottish brewer is surely a vote of confidence in not just the quality of its products, but the potential appeal those beers have around the world.
Innis & Gunn currently has four core markets among the 28 nations it exports to – Canada, Sweden, the US and the UK – and Mr Sharp said a fifth is emerging too, such is the brand’s burgeoning popularity in France. The world, with its seemingly ever-increasing thirst for quality craft beer, is its oyster. As Mr Sharp said: “What I can say with certainty is more and more drinkers are entering the [craft beer] category, and once they have tried it, they never go back [to mainstream brands].”
A point to perhaps ponder is that Innis & Gunn, just as BrewDog did in April, ultimately went across the Pond to secure the investment and expertise it needed. It is a path that has also been trodden by growing companies in other sectors, chiefly tech. Does this mean Scotland lacks the investment clout to allow its home-grown companies to fulfil their potential? It is perhaps something those charged with growing the Scottish economy to ponder next time they are quaffing a hoppy, locally-brewed IPA.
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