NEWS
Hospitality rallies to help WineGB on small wine producer grow reduction of sparkling wine duty
Dunleavy Vineyards are launching a crowdfunding campaign to buy a small field on the outskirts of the city of Bristol. Established by Ingrid Bates thirteen years ago, rather than focussing on ‘direct from vineyard’ sales, Dunleavy wines are sold through a host of small independent shops and many Michelin starred restaurants across the country. Many of these shops and restaurants feature in their crowdfunding video and also in a special reward people can buy as part of their campaign. Commenting on the crowdfunding campaign Ingrid Bates said: “After the difficult year hospitality has had, we weren’t sure what our shop and restaurant customers would say when we asked for help – but we were blown away with the response we received. “The plan is to buy a small field, close to the city of Bristol, to give our business a long-term base where it’s easier for people to engage with us. It’ll be a real showpiece for sustainable viticulture. “People can buy fantastic rewards as part of the Dunleavy crowdfunding campaign to help reach the target of £55,000. As well as
> Ingrid Bates
vine adoption, vineyard tours and tastings, are tickets to a beer and wine tasting with two of Bristol’s best beer producers; Wiper & True and Left Handed Giant – the evening will be hosted by food writer and TV presenter Andy Clarke, in the amazing Finzels Reach building in Bristol."
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/dunleavy-vineyards-crowdfunder
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An article in last weekend’s Sunday Times forecast that the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is planning to simplify the tax system on alcohol in his Autumn Budget which could hail positive news for Britain’s wine producers. It is predicted that sparkling wine duty will be reduced in line with still wine and that there would be further support for English and Welsh wines through restructured duties bringing tax advantages over imported sparkling wines, now that Britain is operating outside of the EU. “This is welcome news to the wine industry of Britain,” commented Simon Thorpe MW, CEO of WineGB. “WineGB has long lobbied the Treasury as part of our engagement on the government’s Excise Duty Review and these changes, if they are announced, would represent a significant benefit to the British wine production industry. We look forward eagerly to the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget Statement on 27 October.”
Fuelling next phase of growth BCI Finance via the fintech focused BCI Credit Opportunities Fund) and Ferovinum are pleased to announce the launch of a new funding facility to enable Ferovinum to materially increase the scale of its support for the wine and spirits industries. Ferovinum provides capital against wine and spirits inventories using its tech platform to enable customers to upload inventories to access funding, manage their stock holdings and supply chain logistics and manage cashflows associated with trade receivables This innovative solution to alleviate the capital and logistical burden of inventory intensive industries was the perfect fit for fintech specialist lender BCI Finance. BCI Finance Managing Director Sam Kemp comments: "At BCI Finance, we are passionate about working with truly innovative lending businesses that are on a mission to disrupt their industries. We believe that the Ferovinum platform has the ability to modernise an antiquated, fragmented global supply chain, while levelling the playing field in enabling smaller and independent producers to access funding in a way that had previously been the privilege of select larger players. We’re delighted to be supporting Ferovinum and to be deploying capital into its sector, and we look forward to continuing to work with the business as it moves through the next phases of its growth." This facility has been setup to bridge into Ferovinum’s upcoming multi tranche facility and will support senior lending for Ferovinum’s next £100m of
capital deployed into wine and spirit supply chains. Ferovinum’s Mitch Fowler added: “BCI Finance were extremely impressive to work with. They immediately understood our business model and worked with us to design a bespoke financing package to support our rapidly growing customer book. The process was quick and efficient from start to finish and BCI has the scale and flexibility to continue to support our rapid growth profile."
> Mitch and Dan
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