Coaching Inn Group reports Ebitda hits £2.7m: Specialist coaching inn operator The Coaching Inn Group, led by Kevin Charity, has reported a 29% increase in sales and a 60% rise in profits as turnover tops £13m. Reporting on its results for the last financial year to March 2016, the group saw turnover reach £13,005,425 – up from £10,065,972 last year. Underlying operating profit increased to £1,281,326 – up 60% on last year’s £800,000 figure – and site Ebitda rose from £2m to £2,701,223, an annualised average of £363,000 Ebitda per site. Food and beverage accounted for 69% of group turnover, with accommodation sales at £3.832m for the year. Group finance director Edward Walsh said: “We continue to see benefits, both from our acquisitions and our investment in established sites, particularly in relation to our hugely popular eatery and coffee house concept. We’re ahead of our acquisition plan, with four new sites acquired in the past 12 months and with terms agreed on a further two sites, we’re on track to reach our target of 15 sites before the end of the year. We’ve completed major refurbishment projects at the White Hart in Boston, Royal Oak in Welshpool and Three Swans in Market Harborough, delivering over 50% return on capital invested and will continue to roll out our extensive investment programme across the estate.”

Tyne Bank Brewery passes 50% mark in £150,000 crowdfunding campaign: Newcastle-based Tyne Bank Brewery has passed the 50% mark in its £150,000 fund-raise on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube after outgrowing its current premises. The company, founded by Julia Austin and has part of the founding management team of Black Sheep Brewery, Pat Green, as a director, is offering a 9.09% equity stake in return for the investment. So far, it has raised £80,620 from 145 investors with nine days remaining. The largest investment to date is £17,000. The pitch states: “Tyne Bank Brewery’s growth has been based on our strong brand and focus on quality craft beers. This has led us to outgrow our current premises in under five years. Instead of just moving to another slightly bigger unit, we want to be ambitious and significantly scale up production. We have identified a new building, which we feel is perfect for a visitor attraction brewery with the addition of a craft beer tap room and event space. It also has space to house a kegging, bottling and canning line. Our own experience in the market suggests a shortage of short run canning capacity and as such we envisage this new arm of the brewery becoming very successful. The business plan assumes continued growth in existing sales streams, online, and export sales along with incremental growth generated by on-site sales from the craft tap room and event space. We are forecasting turnover to increase from £342,000 to £1.3m in 2020 with a net profit of 18%. The packaging line would increase that turnover even further to £1.7m with a net profit of 19%. Tyne Bank is seeking to raise £150,000 to contribute towards the cost of our plans – to refit the building, relocate equipment, upgrade and expand the existing brewery. In addition we want to fit out the tap room and events space and install the bottle, keg and canning plant.”