Thank you. We’ve been blown away by your support for the Join the Rising campaign so far. We wanted to address the most pressing question you may have – not ‘why are we called Northern Monk?’ (although we are asked that a lot).
Before we do get onto that, we wanted to send a massive thanks again to everyone who has signed up for early access and to all who are on this journey with us, from our >2,000 investors, those just discovering Faith, to those all-in with a Northern Monk tattoo. We’re eternally grateful and humbled by your support.
Here we want to set the scene and unpack some of the thinking behind our decision to crowd fund again. Find your comfiest chair and grab a brew. If you’re not near a comfy chair or this is TL;DR for any reason, you could skip to the bullet points.
You can also just sign up for early access here or contact us to request the investor deck by emailing jointherising@northernmonk.com.
It’s 2024. There are 110 of us employed in our company, more than 2,000 of us are shareholders, we’re on track for achieving revenues of £20M in our next financial year after being consistently recognised as one of the UK’s fastest growing breweries and businesses for many of the last 11 years. As we look up, we see multinationals and industry behemoths in our category. Eleven years ago there was just two of us, we looked up to the roof of a damp cellar, we had £5K in the bank.
It is time for the next chapter for Northern Monk. Now we’re looking ahead 11 years to 2035 with plans to take on the goliaths of craft. We’re opening the doors to our community, offering you the chance to join us, become an owner of our business, a part of our story and to help fuel our ambitions.
So, why are we crowd funding?
Two reasons: Belief and Community.
We set out with a clear mission and vision for our brewery. The belief in that mission and vision that has seen us become one of the biggest craft breweries in the UK, despite the headwinds we’ve traded through and the firepower of the competition we’ve faced. We believe there is a role for Northern Monk to play and a voice for it in craft beer that is as relevant today, if not more so, than ever before. The vision, mission and belief in it is stronger than ever.
The majority of craft breweries that are larger than us are backed by multinationals. We know that to take them on, we’ll need to invest in key areas of the business, and we’ll need you. Our community. With heart, spirit and Faith by the pint-full!
They say it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community to let an organisation thrive. With community at our core, we want to open the doors and invite you to own a piece of our business, with what we expect to be our last EIS qualifying round. This means the tax benefits of investing in and becoming a part of our community are unlikely to be there again. Before we’d crowd funded, we didn’t know a lot about EIS– so if you’re pulling a face at this government scheme then check this out for a better explanation.
Our focus on creating the best beer experiences for you, our community, has led to some of the highest rated and most innovative products from any brewery in the world. Our commitment to being Fresh from the North, and all that this means to our community, has resonated across the country.
Why we are excited by the future for Northern Monk?
- We’re 11 years old. We’re resilient, we’re pressure tested, we’re thriving. Despite headwinds that no one would have expected, we have been recognised as one of the UK’s fastest growing breweries and businesses year after year.
- We’re innovative, dynamic and agile. We have respected – but challenged - tradition since our inception. One of the first craft breweries to can their beer. One of the first craft breweries to produce a hazy beer in the UK with Faith now the 2nd biggest hazy in the UK. The first UK craft brewer to produce a Hop Water. Pioneers of the peel and reveal label, bringing a whole new dimension to the consumer experience. The first English brewery to bring home a world beer cup medal for an IPA. One of the first UK breweries to really build their original brewery around a tap room. The first UK brewery to make a beer that taste like crisps (less said about that the better though).
- We’re winning in grocery. In consumer battlegrounds, this is the colosseum. Few make it. Multinational brands spend billions in an attempt to attract your attention. We have been recognised as the fastest growing craft brewer in grocery during 2024. Last year half of the top performing new products in the arena were ours. We look forward to seeing the results from this year's entrants. With extra capacity and more people in our On Trade team led by Alex (with seven years of experience as On Trade Director at Red Bull) we are deeply excited about igniting our brand in the on trade.
- We’re real. *pinches self*. Up against the multinationals and agencies trying maximise shelf stand out in any way they can, our cans are designed by our inhouse designer, Jon. Jon is a true Monk legend. He’s been with us for seven years. His designs are paired with illustrations by tattoo artist and true friend of the Monks, James Butler, to create our core range. Incidentally, James’s first professional tattoo was on us (on Russ actually - a Northern Monk one to commemorate a leap of Faith). His designs now sit in every major retailer in the UK. True story. Get a tattoo from him, he’s a great guy.
- This is not a flash in the pan thing. Beer is not a fad. It’s been around for 13,000 years. We’re not doing anything new here. We want to disrupt a category that’s been around since the dawn of civilization.
- We’re committed to doing things right. We’re human, it doesn’t mean we’ll always get it right but we believe it’s important to be a force for good wherever we can. We’re not going to tell you to buy our beer because it will save the world - but we are on a quest to raise the bar for our community, locally, nationally and internationally. Socially and environmentally.
- Our Positive Impact Director spits feathers at the green washing that goes on across consumer industries. That’s why Ciaran is the right guy for the job. With his guidance we plan on becoming carbon neutral in our direct emissions by 2030, the right way. No offsetting. No short cuts.
- On the social impact side, inspired by a selfless gift of £5K from Granny Bisset, we have now donated to more than 20 community causes and are on track to donate £150K by the end of 2025.
- Looking after our Monks at the centre of our community is where our social impact starts. Led by our People Manager, Neve, we’ve been rated as an Exceptional place to work based on an anonymous survey by Best Companies. Their annual rankings are yet to be released for this year but using last year’s scores as a guide, we would be in the top 100 companies to work for in the UK.
- Awareness and strength of our brand grows and grows. If we’d have thought 11 years ago that we would work with the breweries, brands and creatives we have, we probably wouldn’t have believed you. We are forever humbled by the calibre, creativity and talent of the people we get to work with. This winter we’re dropping two of our biggest brand collabs yet. We’ll keep the activations a surprise for now but working alongside the UK’s fastest growing premium outdoors brand Montane and our all-time heroes Timothy Taylor’s, is a dream come true. Big things to come.
- We’re committed to creating incredible beer experiences. Some wonderful, some weird, but most often Faith. This is purely anecdotal, and definitely not a scientific calculation, but if we had £1 for every time someone told us that Faith is their favourite beer, we would already have the £1M we are looking to raise during this round. That wouldn’t let you become shareholders though - so thankfully the kind words only fuel our quest to keep raising the bar for you. We do love Faith though. There are some things in this world that are meant to be. Timothy Taylor’s Landlord. Heinz Tomato Ketchup. Scampi Fries. For us Faith is up there with the best. It’s there when you’re having a BBQ, its hazy, ethereal glow catches the light by the pint after an epic week of work. It’s a drinking beer. A drinking beer to truly savour. Brian and his team in production have truly dialed in this beer over the years and they deserve every praise for giving us Faith.
What will we use the money for?
- A flagship site in London. This has been on the cards for years. We had ambitious plans and investment in place for a £1.5M brewpub on Kingsland Rd in Shoreditch. Then Covid hit. Our brand is resonating nationally, with sales of Faith in a Tesco in Brighton in one week being the same as a Tesco in Leeds last time we checked. A brand beacon for our Monk drinking community in the heart of the capital is essential.
- Brewery expansion so we can continue to meet demand, particularly for Faith, and improve efficiencies and processes as we work towards our sustainability targets mentioned above.
- The Old Flax Store regeneration. We’re inspired by a number of things Guinness have achieved. We believe Faith has the potential to be the hazy, carefree, brother to Guinness in the world of craft beer. One of the many things that Guinness have done well is their visitors experience centre. As the 2nd most checked-in brewery tap room in the UK on Untappd, a short walk from one of the UK’s busiest transport hubs, our original brewery and tap room housed in a Grade II listed flax mill is perfectly placed to become the UK’s best craft beer visitor experience.
If you’re still with us on this long read, thanks! Setting out our ambition to be the biggest craft brewery in Europe* is no small feat. No doubt there will be many challenges ahead, but our belief is steadfast, and our mission is clear. We are constantly inspired and have deep respect for our peers that have chosen to stay at a smaller size. From the outset we have been ambitious, part of our mission reads “to grow in stature as we grow in scale”. As long as we feel we can add value to our customers whilst using our growth to support our community, we will absolutely do just that.
We have come so far in the last 11 years. With you alongside us, we’re incredibly excited for what the next 11 years will bring.
Cheers
Team Monk
* We have no ambition to have a massive bar estate, no plans to take on macro lager. This is about sales in Europe. This is about being the biggest true craft brewer selling craft beer, within Europe and growing our business to over £150 million by 2035.