English sake brewery Shogun Sake has closed a £550k fundraising round as it looks to capitalise on booming demand for the Japanese spirit in the UK.
Sake’s popularity is flourishing, with specialised bars emerging across London and wine merchant Berry Bros & Rudd reporting a 10-fold increase in sales last year.
But according to Shogun Sake’s founders, sake’s popularity is still held back by high prices, misconceptions over the drink’s taste, and confusion over imported bottles branded in Japanese text.
The brewery has therefore attempted to redesign sake for a western audience, initially launching a small can of straight sake, before following it up with sake spritz RTDs and sake bottles.
“We wanted to break down the barrier of associating sake as something you just have with sushi and tailor it through the branding and taste for a western audience,” said co-founder Ed Turner.
The business has already opened a custom-built brewery in south London and will use the latest fundraising cash to expand its operations, increase its sales team, and boost marketing to grow brand awareness.
The business was founded by school friends Turner, Ali MacLaine, and Pete Troiano in 2023 after travelling to Japan and noting the rising demand for sake across Europe and North America.
The founders invested £250k of their own money to build the brewery, which has a capacity of around 100,000 litres per year.
It is now sold in around 40 bars in the UK and three national wholesalers. Waitrose remains the only British supermarket to sell sake, and Turner believes the market is not yet ready for a wider rollout.
“That’s definitely a two-or-three-year plan, but we want that to be our big national rollout, which we’re not quite ready for yet.”
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