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 bestsellers – including its flagship Hepcat Session IPA – to Curious Brewing in Kent by the end of the year, The Grocer has learned.
In an email sent to customers, Gipsy Hill co-founder Charlie Shaw said “eye-watering” rent increases at the brewery’s Hamilton Road site necessitated the move.
“Throughout our tenancy at Hamilton Road, rent increases have been both continuous and sharp in nature,” he wrote. “Despite all the success we continue to have at Gipsy Hill, including a 19% year-on-year increase in sales of our flagship Hepcat this year, no amount of growth or improved efficiency can offset our escalating overheads.”
Sunrise Alliance plans to continue to house logistics operations, brew limited-edition beers and undertake R&D for the wider business from Gipsy Hill’s Hamilton Road site until at least 2027, when its current lease expires.
Gipsy Hill’s taproom on the estate will also remain open, and Sunrise has extended its lease until 2028.
However, “the majority of brewing” would move to Curious Brewing “once beers produced there match the same exacting standards they do at Hamilton Road,” Shaw revealed.
“We have never and will never make changes that compromise the quality of our beers,” he said. “Quality remains the bedrock of our business and our brand.”
Around 14 production staff working at Gipsy Hill will be affected by the move, The Grocer understands.
“This news will impact our team in different ways and we are working to ensure people get the best possible outcomes,” Shaw said. “The majority of our production team will be offered roles elsewhere in the company and will be given relocation expenses where necessary.”
Shaw continued: “We hope that you will continue to judge us on the quality of the beers we produce and the service we provide. We will not waver in our commitment to both.
“The commercial viability of having a large or even midsized brewery with a London postcode has been brought sharply into question in recent times. Those times have caught up with Gipsy Hill, but we have an opportunity to make this business work, an opportunity that we will go after with everything we have.”
Gipsy Hill’s financial woes
Gipsy Hill was founded in 2014 by Shaw and Sam McMeekin 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.e
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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