Sunrise Alliance Beverages is to shift production of Gipsy Hill’s core range beers out of London.
The craft beer brewing group, which purchased Gipsy Hill in a cut-price sale last October, is to move production of the south London brand’s best-sellers – including its flagship Hepcat Session IPA– to Curious Brewing in Kent by the end of this year, The Grocer has learned.
Sunrise Alliance plans to continue to operate logistics, brew limited edition beers and undertake R&D for the wider Sunrise business out of Gipsy Hill’s Hamilton Road site until at least 2027, when its current lease expires.
Gipsy Hill’s taproom on the Hamilton Road estate will remain open, and Sunrise has extended its lease until at least 2028.
However, a number of production roles in South London are set to be impacted by the move.
The majority of Gipsy Hill’s 14 production staff will be offered roles in Kent, or elsewhere in the wider Sunrise Alliance business, The Grocer understands.
Gipsy Hill was founded in 2014 by Sam McMeekin and Charlie Shaw but fell into financial difficulty in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A failed £500k equity crowdfund raise in 2023 left its founders with little choice to divest to Sunrise last October, with McMeekin telling investors that “without further funding we would almost certainly be looking at administration”.
The deal to sell Gipsy Hill to Sunrise valued the business at just £5m, equivalent to 0.9x its forecasted annual revenues for 2027. This was a far cry from the £21m the business valued itself at as part of a successful £865k crowdfunding campaign in 2022.
Gipsy Hill racked up losses of almost £7m between 2014 and its sale to Sunrise – with losses of £1.3m reported in 2023.
Since then, losses have only grown with Gipsy Hill reporting a further £1.4m loss in the year ended 31 December 2024, according to filings at Companies House.
Sunrise Alliance Beverages has evolved out of St Peter’s Brewery since 2023 as the Suffolk-based supplier has looked to grow revenue streams and expand further into craft beer.
In September 2023, the business acquired the Wild Beer Co and Curious Brewing brands from private equity Firm Risk Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum.
It added Portobello to its roster a month prior to the acquisition of Gipsy Hill.
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