Chapel Down reports ‘second highest harvest by volume’: Chapel Down completed its 2017 harvest, yielding ‘excellent quality fruit for our wines and was our second highest harvest by volume’. It stated: “The industry saw a difficult start to the growing season with a number of vineyard sites hit by a frost in late April 2017. Chapel Down mitigates some of the risk of frosts by sourcing from 23 vineyards across the south east from Dorset in the west through Hampshire and Sussex to Kent in the east and Essex in the north.” Frazer Thompson, chief executive of Chapel Down Group, added: “Following a challenging start to the season, we enjoyed an excellent flowering season in June and a decent English summer in our vineyards. With an early harvest in good weather we were able to record our second highest ever harvest by volume – some 10% greater than last year. More importantly, with good vineyard management, we saw very good quality throughout the varieties, and some truly exceptional parcels of Chardonnay that will enable us to continue to surprise and delight customers with the highest quality wines. With demand continuing to exceed our ability to supply and the quality of wines continuing to improve, this harvest is further positive news for the group.”

West Berkshire Brewery to close EIS funding round on 17 November: West Berkshire Brewery, which owns a pub in London and has recently acquired two more, has confirmed that it would close its latest Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) funding round on 17 November and a new share allotment will take place on 21 November, the day before the budget, City AM has reported. This comes following reports that the treasury is considering reforming EIS. The scheme gives individual investors tax relief, with the purpose of encouraging investment in small British companies. Operators of asset-rich companies such as pub groups fear that the chancellor could clamp down on the use of EIS funds for buying assets such as property. The treasury has reportedly been mulling a crack-down on the scheme to stop high earners abusing the tax relief. However last month a group of supporters for the scheme wrote an open letter in the Sunday Times warning that limiting EIS could prevent the UK from creating top startups. “They don’t believe that they are risky enough,” Alex Davies, chief executive of EIS operator Wealth Club, told City A.M. “If it all goes wrong, you still have an asset at the end of the day. Whether it’s a pub, nursery, it’s a multiplier effect on the economy. You have to employ staff and tradesman, and often you invigorate run-down areas. To take it away would be ridiculous.” In an interview with Wealth Club recorded last month, West Berkshire Brewery chair David Bruce said the threat of tighter regulation was “a very good reason now for filling your boots”. “West Berkshire Brewery has got EIS clearance so we want to go out there. That’s why we’ve got two fabulous projects, £5m between the two of them, we can use EIS money for that. After November 22nd there’s a danger we can’t use EIS money for that.” But the pub and drinks industry veteran also said that the brewery would borrow against its balance sheet in the event that it is prevented from buying new assets with EIS money.

Shake Shack has better Quarter Three than expected, average sales per site $91,000 per week: Shake Shack has increased its like-for-like sales and revenue estimates for the end of this year after a better than expected Third Quarter – it reported like-for-like sales down 1.6% versus an expected decline of 2.6%. Chief executive Randy Garutti said that the company plans to open as many as 26 company-operated locations in the US before the end of the year, up from the 23 to 24 it had expected previously. By the end of 2018, Shake Shack is scheduled to open between 32 and 35 new US locations, with about 20% of the new sites expected to open in new markets. Shake Shack said Third Quarter net income rose to $94.6 million from $74.6 million a year ago. The revenue was slightly higher than analysts expectations of $94.5 million. The company said it now expects revenue for 2017 to be at least $354 million, up from its previous forecast of at least $351 million. The company said that its domestic sites averaged $91,000 in sales per week, a slight decline from last quarter which saw an average of $92,000 per week. Garutti said during an earnings conference call that the company lost about $300,000 during the quarter due to restaurant closures associated with Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Nine locations were closed for a total of 33 days, he said. During the closure, Shake Shack paid employees for the hours they would have worked. Shake Shack said its third-quarter profit jumped nearly 33%. The company said it mad a profit of $5 million, or 19 cents per share, in the quarter, up from $3.8 million, or 15 cents per share, a year ago.