The Little Brewing Company, through its parent company, TLBC Holdings Ltd, has recently begun seeking investor funds to increaseits production, staffing and marketing capabilities.
The Little Brewing Companywas started in Port Macquarie by husband and wife team Warwick and Kylie Little. The breweryhas a reputation for high quality, releasing six beers to date under the Wicked Elf and Mad Abbot labels, all with consistent performances in competition at national and international levels.
As TLBC Holdings Ltd’schiefexecutiveofficer, Kylie Little, explains the company has been at running at full capacity for some time now and needs to expand its production capacity to meet both current and projected demand.
“My husband and Ihave looked at a number of options to finance the business’ growth,” she says. ”We have built this business from scratch putting everything into the quality of our product. It’s now time to take the business to another level and we feel that the new structure is the best option for long term sustainability and increased profitability.”
Riding on the back of the ground swell gathering behind the craft beer industryin Australia the company is aiming to grow ahead of the curve.
“The most recent IBISWorld industry report on the malt and beverage industry in Australia predicts strong growth of the craft beer sector in the next few years in line with international trends,” says Little. “Simply, we need to grow to take advantage of this.”
Little tells Beer & Brewer that TLBC are looking for investors from all walks of life. Initially they are offering $50,000 parcels to no more than 20 mum and dad-type investors (sophisticated, registered investors are not included in this quota). For those who would love to invest in a brewery but don’t have quite that much, there are plenty of options open. According to Little they have had lots of enquiries from individuals who have $10,000 to invest, meaning that the company is more than happy to facilitate groups of five investors to achieve the requisite amount for a parcel.
Little says the company has already had plenty of interest and investments have started to flow in, though it was a difficult decision to make in the first place.
“It’s hard to give up a piece of something we have worked so hard for but we can’t keep up with demand – we haven’t been able to keep up with demand for a long time,” says Little. “We have all this opportunity and now we need capitalise on it.”
It is important to note that this is a public share offer and not a listing on the stock exchange. Information for investors is available at www.tlbcholdings.com.au or telephone Stevan Dart, SME Capital & Securities, on 0407 211 262.