Northern Monk smashes crowdfunding target in just three hours

02-Mar-2018 - Last updated on 02-Mar-2018 at 14:18 GMT

Fund targets: Northern Monk founder Russell Bisset said the reaction to the crowdfunding had been 'mindblowing'

Related tags Brewing

Leeds-based Northern Monk Brew Co has reached its initial £500,000 crowdfunding target, just three hours into its month-long campaign.

The brewery had earmarked a target of £500,000 to triple brewing capacity, install a new packaging line and expand its wild beer and barrel-ageing programme.

Having reached this target and with more than three weeks to go until funding closes, the brewery will now seek to overfund in order to open additional taprooms, with the possibility of a London brewpub on the cards.

At the time of publication, the brewery has raised almost £700,000 from almost 1,000 investors, selling around 6.5% of the business in the process.

'Mindblowing' response

Speaking to The Morning Advertiser, Northern Monk founder Russell Bisset said the reaction to the crowdfunding had been “mindblowing”.

"We didn't expect it at all,” he said. “Going into the crowdfunding round has been almost like starting the business again in terms of the level of nerves, excitement and anticipation, but we really didn't know how it was going to go."

"It means the world. One of the things we were so keen to do was to build a community of people around the brand that share our ambition and it's so nice to see that message has resonated and that so many people want to get on board with what we are setting out to do."

London brew pub plans

On the subject of Northern Monk taprooms in major UK cities, Bisset added: "That is absolutely the plan. We do have to get quite close to the £1m mark for it to become a reality within the next 18 months to two years.

“We're really excited about it and we are looking at the various opportunities available to us. The dream is to start a brewpub at London but we'd really need to be at the higher end of the funding for that to happen.”

Northern Monk currently employs 30 members of staff and has sold beer in 22 different countries, including USA, New Zealand and Japan. Production looks set to exceed 3m pints in 2018 and the brewery has been at capacity since its launch.

The brewery was founded in 2013 by Bisset with a budget of just £5,000, and is one of the fastest growing food and drinks businesses in the north of the UK.