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Irish Whiskey Distillery LAUNCHES €1.5m crowdfund for next phase of growth

Aspire Executive Lounges, Swissport's global airport hospitality brand, has joined the British Institute of Hospitality, the world’s leading and award-winning membership body for hospitality professionals. Aspire Executive Lounges becomes the first business partner from the airport lounge hospitality sector to join the Institute of Hospitality. Aspire Executive Lounges, the fast-growing Swiss brand in the airport hospitality business, has joined the British Institute of Hospitality (IoH), the world’s leading membership body for professionals working and studying in the hospitality leisure and tourism industry. Aspire Executive Lounges is the first business from the airport lounge sector to become a member of IoH. The collaboration will foster an exchange of expertise and insights: IoH will benefit from Aspire's expertise in airport hospitality, while Aspire, by sharing its wealth of experience with IoH members, can extend its professional network to the hotel and catering sectors and hospitality management schools. “Our vision for Aspire Executive Lounges is clear and simple: We want to deliver a guest experience that is similar to what our guests are used to from their preferred hotels, meeting the needs and exceeding the expectations of today’s travelers,” says David Collyer, Global Vice President of Executive Lounges at Swissport International AG. “We strive to deliver an unparalleled experience and set a benchmark that transcends our industry, redefining excellence across the hospitality sector. The Institute of Hospitality is a great network to exchange insights and experiences, and to learn from others in the hospitality sector, which will help us bring our vision to life.” Robert Richardson, CEO of the Institute of Hospitality: “Our aspiration at the Institute of Hospitality has been to develop and grow our membership, the number of countries we operate in, and the number of hospitality sectors represented within our organization. With that in mind, it is a natural partnership for us to welcome Aspire into our family, and to learn from their teams, who serve travelers with passion and dedication. As two organizations with similar values, we look forward to collaborating in promoting high levels of excellence within our profession.” With over 30 years of experience, Aspire Executive Lounges is Europe’s largest brand in the airport lounges sector. In 2023, Swissport welcomed more than five million customers worldwide at over 69 lounges in 20 countries. The airport hospitality brand recently opened new lounges at Toronto City Airport in Canada, and Helsinki-Vantaa Airport in Finland. Aspire Executive Lounges recently created a new lounge concept in partnership with the airline alliance oneworld. The first oneworld branded lounge was launched at Incheon Airport in Seoul, Korea, in December 2023. Aspire Executive Lounges is owned by Swissport International AG, the global leader in aviation services, serving airlines at 286 airports in 44 countries across 6 continents
Written by Amy
  • Award winning Sliabh Liag Distillers to build new distillery as sales grow 50% YoY
  • Product range expanding, including new whiskeys, super-premium gins and craft vodka
  • Donegal’s place on the fast-growing Irish whiskey market to emulate Islay’s in Scotland

Sliabh Liag Distillers, (pronounced Sleeve League, meaning ‘mountain of flagstones’) today announces it is seeking €1.5m in investment via crowdfunding to fuel the next phase of its expansion. The Crowdcube campaign will launch on Wednesday 26th August and run for four weeks, pre-registration is now open at www.sliabhliagdistillers.com/crowdfunding.

This fundraising round will allow Sliabh Liag Distillers’s growing band of followers to join a select group including a drinks industry multinational (Asahi), sophisticated investors and Donegal locals as investors in a sector that has doubled in size over the last decade. The investment will be eligible for EIS tax relief in the UK (EIIS tax relief in Ireland) and will come with a range of rewards from having your name etched on a copper still for all time to receiving a bespoke Donegal ‘Silkie’ fishing fly. The opportunity is set to attract many sophisticated investors from amongst the Irish diaspora, drinks enthusiasts and others looking for interesting long-term investments.

Sliabh Liag Distillers was founded by two Irish ‘scatterlings’ (returnees) with a simple aim: to reclaim the distilling heritage of Donegal and recreate the rich authentic spirits of the area from a time before the industrial revolution. Its husband and wife founders, James and Moira Doherty, want to make the Sliabh Liag peninsula to Irish whiskey what Islay is to Scotch.

Since inception, Sliabh Liag Distillers has grown from strength-to-strength, meeting demands from the international premium drinks sector for a better selection of authentic Irish whiskeys. The sector has been dominated by a handful of mainstream brands for a century, but in the last decade, a renaissance of unique, small-batch spirits, has seen it double in size.

Sliabh Liag Distillers is creating a new area of growth with its distinctive tasting products that are gaining cachet among Ireland’s most renowned food critics, chefs and restaurateurs, alongside a sizable social media following and international press coverage.

It is this hard-earned prestige and following that will, by Autumn 2021, see Sliabh Liag Distillers commence its phased move to Ardara, its new headquarters and future home of its current five exciting brands, and many new ones to come. Work on the site is already underway, and will increase the Company’s production capacity to 500,000 litres of alcohol per annum with room for expansion, as it anticipates growing international demand.

Accompanying the renaissance of Irish whiskey has been a resurgence of whiskey tourism. In time, the site at Ardara will feature tiered levels of tours that will take visitors through the distillery, the distilling process, the history of whiskey and local poitín-making, alongside the heritage of the area.

James Doherty, Managing Director of Sliabh Liag, said: “We are reclaiming the distilling heritage of Donegal and in doing so we have founded the first legal whiskey distillery in the county for over 175 years. Both my grandfathers were illicit poitín men. This is in my DNA.  It is my legacy and one that I think my grandfathers would be proud of.

“I want to share this legacy – this opportunity to cement artisan Irish whiskey as the world’s best – with those who want to come along with us on this exciting journey through Ireland’s long, almost lost distilling heritage. Join us, or as we say in Irish, ‘Bigi Linn’.”

Moira Doherty, Director of Sliabh Liag, said: “It’s been an interesting year to say the least. On one hand we pivoted into making hand sanitiser for the community here in Donegal, while on the other we laid down the first barrel of smoky single malt Irish whiskey in the county since 1841.

“The Ardara Distillery is the natural next step in our journey to revive the Irish whiskey tradition; to bring it back to the communities while taking the name of Donegal to the furthest reaches we can. After a century where a few big players have dominated, this is a real chance for you to get involved in bringing it back home where it belongs – it will be a part of your story and legacy as much as it is our own.”

 INVESTOR RELATIONS

  • Shares are priced at £75.00.  Total valuation of Sliabh Liag Distillers is £14,988,300.
  • The share class offered to investors on Crowdcube are A Ordinary Shares with pre-emption and voting rights. The shares will be issued to Crowdcube Nominees Limited to hold the shares on behalf of investors. Five share classes exist:
  • Founder Ordinary, two votes per share, pre-emption rights over all classes of shares
  • A Ordinary, one vote per share, pre-emption rights within own class
  • B Ordinary, no votes, pre-emption rights within own class, put call agreement
  • C Ordinary, no votes, pre-emption rights within own class
  • 5% Cumulative Redeemable Preference Shares
  • Specific advice should be sought prior to making any investment in Sliabh Liag Distillers DAC, based on the particular circumstances of a prospective investor.  This is not a regulated investment and investment is only appropriate for investors who have a high attitude to risk.  For investors in Ireland this is not an offering for the purposes of Section 68 of the Companies Act 2014.

 

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Amy