Pickering's eyes £350,000 deal to expand gin baubles
This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement.
Summerhall Distillery, the firm behind Pickering’s – launched by Marcus Pickering and Matthew Gammell in 2014 – said its first batch of gin baubles sold out online before last Christmas in just 82 seconds and it has now turned to alternative finance specialist LendingCrowd to gear up for this year’s festive season.
Pickering, a former butler at Skibo Castle, said: “The massive demand for our baubles took us pleasantly by surprise, so working with LendingCrowd has allowed us to react quickly and make sure we deliver for our customers next Christmas.”
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe distiller, based at Edinburgh’s Summerhall arts and business hub on the site of the city’s former Royal Dick vet school, produces gin based on an original Bombay recipe dating back to 1947.
Stuart Lunn, chief executive and co-founder of LendingCrowd, said: “The financing campaign we are running on our platform for the Summerhall Distillery is a classic type of deal for the team at LendingCrowd, characterised by an ambitious management team at Pickering’s with a fast-growing business who require access to funding in a quick and efficient manner not always prevalent when it comes to the high street banks.”
LendingCrowd connects investors with small and medium-sized companies typically seeking loans of between £5,000 and £250,000. Since its launch in 2014, it has facilitated loans totalling more than £9 million and has signed up more than 2,000 investors.
The firm recently partnered with the Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise, in an initiative that will see £2.75m invested in Scottish SMEs across its platform. It is expected that the move will stimulate loans of up to £35m for small firms.