Brewing up a boost for BrewDog

ICONOCLASTIC craft beer maker BrewDog has confirmed plans for a second fundraising to generate £2.2 million from private investors for a state-of-the art brewery outside of Aberdeen.

The Fraserburgh-based firm has renewed its inventive online fundraising scheme "Equity for Punks" aimed at the beer maker's own customers. BrewDog, known for its extra-strong beers such as Sink the Bismarck at 41 per cent alcohol by volume, raised about 670,000 from more than 1,500 investors when it launched the first scheme in 2009.

But this fell short of the founders' target of 2.3m which had been earmarked to fund the development of a new carbon neutral brewery.

In the second round, the firm has lowered the cost of entry to potential investors to 95 for four "B" shares, compared to 230 per share previously.

The second wave also comes with incentives such as discounts on online orders and in the group's bars, located in Aberdeen and Edinburgh and soon to be in Glasgow and London.

James Watt, the firm's co-founder, said: "Equity for Punks is to offer an alternate type of business model. We don't want to go to banks or venture capitalists; we want the people who enjoy our beers and like what we do as a company to have an ownership stake in our business.

"It is an innovative way for a small company to raise money when the banks aren't keen to lend."

He said BrewDog was on track for a turnover of 6.5m in 2011.