Innis & Gunn hits £3m ‘beer bond’ target: Innis & Gunn has successfully raised its target of £3 million via a mini-bond investment offer, which will fund the creation of a state of the art brewery in South East Scotland. The Innis & Gunn ‘beer bond’ offered investors a four-year, initial fixed-term mini-bond with an interest rate of 7.25% gross interest per annum for investments from £500 – it attracted 1,113 investors. Alternatively, or in addition to, investors could opt for the BeerBucks BeerBond, which offered an equivalent of 9% gross interest rate per annum, with the return taken in the form of ‘BeerBucks’, redeemed against beer at the Innis & Gunn online shop. Dougal Gunn Sharp, founder and chief executive of Innis & Gunn, said: “We’ve been blown away by the level of support the bond has received and are over the moon to have hit our target. We’ve always known that our fans and the beer community were enthusiastic about the offer and keen to get involved, but we have been truly bowled over. It’s now a matter of breaking ground on our site, which we are now in final negotiations to secure.” Since its foundation in 2003, Innis & Gunn has grown to become a highly successful international business, with an annual turnover of £11.8 million in 2014 – up from £10.5 million in 2013. Last year Innis & Gunn sold over 20 million bottles of beer and is the second biggest supplier of craft beer to the UK off-trade. The company recently launched its first retail outlet, The Beer Kitchen by Innis & Gunn and is set to roll out the concept UK wide, with a further five venues planned by 2017. The development of the new brewery is expected to create up to an additional 35 jobs over the next four years.

Christie + Co – Troubadour sold for well above £225,000 asking price: Agent Christie + Co has reported it sold The Troubadour, an established and music venue and restaurant in South West London, to existing shareholder, Giles McNamee for well above its £225,000 asking price. The agent stated: “Following an extremely short marketing period during which a last minute decision was made to place the company in to administration, (we) sold the venue well above the asking price of £225,000.” The iconic venue celebrated over 60 years of business since being established in 1954 and is one of the last remaining 1950s coffee houses in London with a proud history as a centre of bohemian art scene. The Troubadour Club has hosted music greats such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon in the 1960s and 1970s and more recently Ronnie Wood, Mick Taylor, Adele, Ed Sheeran and Amos Lee. Simon Chaplin, director of pubs and restaurants at Christie + Co, said: “Having received a substantial amount of interest over a short marketing period we are delighted that The Troubadour’s doors will remain open. Susie and Simon Thornhill will continue to run the venue and we wish them all the best building on the stellar work they have already done.”

Byron, Red’s True Barbecue and Hickory’s introduce revamped versions of US classic drinks to menu: Burger company Byron, Red’s True Barbecue and Hickory’s have introduced revamped versions of the US classic drinks root beer and cream soda to their menus. The restaurant companies have launched the range of drinks, which has been reformulated by soft drinks company Soda Folk. Byron was the first restaurant group to introduce Soda Folk, founded by Colorado native Ken Graham after he moved to London from the US and he found himself homesick for Colorado root beer. Byron founder Tom Byng said: “Ken’s craft sodas are the perfect match for our proper hamburgers: classic American flavours, made with great, simple ingredients, and lots of care and attention to detail.” Byron’s customers are able to create soda floats and hard floats by adding ice cream, a shot of bourbon – or both. The cream soda is made with carbonated water, pure cane sugar and Madagascan vanilla while the root beer soda is also made with a base of carbonated water and pure cane sugar, but is taken spicy new heights with wintergreen and rounded off with aged vanilla and pure maple syrup.