ARRAN Brewery is launching a second round of crowdfunding to raise money for its continued rapid expansion as it opens its own bottling facility and plans to create two more plants.

With the help of crowdfunding, the company plans to open its Craft Lager Brewery and its innovative Sake Brewery. It is also seeking funding to continue its expansion in the UK, Europe and the USA.

Managing Director Gerald Michaluk (pictured) said: “We need to raise money to see all our ambitious plans realised. We have a significant US advantage having our own import business there and we are very excited about brewing Scotland’s first sake, while bringing bottling in-house makes business sense.

“The brewery is proud of its stand on using only natural ingredients and whole hops not pellets or essences and, of course, its provenance with all its beers carrying the Arran Brand being brewed on Arran, with its excellent brewing water. Its award winning ales stand testament to the success of this strategy.”

Arran Brewery used its first round of crowdfunding money to open an import company in the USA and Spain, to purchase sites for its continued expansion, and to complete the first phase of an upgrade of the facility on Arran. It has also used the funding to continue the development of its new Lager Brewing facility, hotel and visitor centre on the banks of Loch Earn in St Fillans, Perthshire.

In addition Arran’s Devils Dyke Brewery in Cambridgeshire now has its brewing license and is set to begin production in earnest later this summer. The new Devils Dyke Brewery is a small brewery attached to a pub in rural Cambridgeshire and is the staging post for Arran’s expansion into the lucrative London Market. The craft brewery will produce up to 50 different beers a year and act as a research and development centre.The beers will be sold exclusively to 26 Craft Beer outlets in the London and Cambridge area.

Arran has been seeking expansion through acquisition and is seeking interesting breweries to buy, having recently tried, but failed, to purchase the Loch Ness Brewery from its liquidator.

Mr Michaluk said: “It would be great if a brewery approached us before calling in a liquidator or if they are in need of a strategic partnership because once a liquidator is appointed to the brand – that may have taken years to establish – it can suffer and most of its value vanishes over night. We are looking for strategic partners here in the UK and around the world.”