Whisky distillery looks into £15m float on AIM

The Lakes Distillery, a single malt whisky distillery, has announced it’s exploring the possibility of seeking admission of its shares to trading on AIM, the London Stock Exchange’s market for smaller growing companies.

The company has appointed N+1 Singer as its nominated adviser and broker in relation to a possible admission and a potential fundraising by way of a placing with institutional shareholders to raise up to £15m of growth capital in the latter part of 2018 (together the ‘IPO’).

Nigel Mills, CEO of The Lakes Distillery, said: “The Lakes Distillery has strong brand credentials, is located in an area of outstanding natural beauty, the Lake District National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and has a successful track record of innovation and brand development.

“We believe we are well positioned for growth, with multiple revenue streams, and an appreciating asset in the form of our whisky stock, developed using our multi-oak, multi-sherry led production process.

“We are exploring an IPO as a flexible source of capital to allow us to increase our production significantly, whilst remaining independent and focused on quality, as well as investing in our whisky stock, our sales and marketing capabilities and our distribution channels. Ultimately this will help us to achieve our ambition to build a global luxury whisky brand.”

In January, The Lakes Distillery recently announced it was expanding its commercial operation in order to meet demand for sales.

A meeting has been convened for later this month at which various resolutions needed to enable the IPO to take place are to be put to the company’s shareholders for approval.