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Growth & Enjoyment: Early Start Distillery Fund (ESDF)
Why Invest in the Drinks Industry?
- Growing market $656 - $874 billion by 2030.
- Transformative craft spirits market $21 - $35 billion by 2030 = 10.5%.
- Drinks industry is often counter cyclical.
- Low correlation to the market and technology funds particularly.
- 0.45 with FTSE 100 Index and 0.14 with FTSE Tech Index (Diageo).
- Drinks industry is innovative and dynamic.
- It is an understandable industry.
- It’s a portfolio diversifier.
Global spirit market value
Craft spirits market value
A growing global audience
The gender shift
Fund Portfolio Companies
Shivering Mountain Distillery
The Peak District’s Shivering Mountain Distillery is a community-based project using local youth, produce and craftsmen to produce premium gin and vodka from the area. The distillery features a replica of the mountain, Mam Tor (The Shivering Mountain) inside the base of a stunning ribbed bottle, which makes the mountain shiver when you move it. (The bottle won the UK Packaging Awards in 2021.) The brand is already global as the distillery sells in Germany Malta, Mauritius, Taiwan and India. FDA registration for the US has also been granted with a view to market entry in 2026 and the distillery is working on the launch of a Rum to be made on the Island of Mauritius. This business looks set to be one of the stronger craft brands in the UK.
The Jersey Cow Distillery
The Jersey Cow Distillery produces vodka and gin crafted from a signature ingredient — the world-renowned milk of the Jersey cow. Each product is deeply connected to this iconic breed, globally recognised as the premium standard in dairy. The company has secured an exclusive 10-year agreement with Jersey Dairy, appointing The Jersey Cow Distillery as its sole spirits production partner. Under this agreement, the distillery has full permission to use the Jersey Dairy name and branding in its marketing, particularly for international markets. With Jersey Dairy’s strong reputation and existing brand recognition across key Asian markets, the partnership positions The Jersey Cow Distillery for rapid global growth and premium market penetration.
Penrhos Spirits
Based in the Herefordshire Marches, Penrhos was born out of two farming families as a way to use the wobbly fruit that the supermarkets didn’t want to buy. The gins created by the Penrhos team from their orchards and farm botanicals and their own natural water are contained in genuinely re-cycled aluminium bottles giving an environmental argument loved by many and a weight-saving argument loved by the airline industry. Leveraging their farming background the distillery is heavily focussed on the UK supermarket industry and is already a volume producer. Founders Charlie Turner and Rochard Williams are tough businessmen in their own right and look set to extend farming success into distilling.
Brand Tap
Over 150 years of brewing and distilling expertise and experience led Chris Sadler to build a business helping other distillers and brewers to compete in the alcohol industry. Helping companies brew, distil, bottle and label and strategise about market entry, places Brand Tap in a uniquely powerful market position with tremendous industry contacts and a diverse income stream that also includes their own brand of spirits – Rum Gin and Vodka under the Wildjack name. Brand Tap is a sophisticated business, well-funded and it will interact well with the other companies inside the Early Start Distillery Fund.
The Green Room Distillery
Multi-award-winning Green Room Distillery was started by two friends from the world of theatre in April 2020. Working from their newly acquired site in Soho - the area's first legal and licensed distillery in nearly 400 years - their premium small batch spirits include the signature Theatre Dry Gin, aged Encore Sloe Gin, the world’s first peated dry gin, Smoke & Mirrors, and their sustainable Revival Vodka. They are all distilled, bottled and finished with a wax seal, ‘behind the scenes' in London. No other gin distilleries core range has won a full complement of Great Taste Awards, for which they are extremely proud. Their central London position gives them home advantage in the UK’s best spirit's market.
Our Team
Nick Malaczynski
Malaczynski Burn
CEO
Nick has an extensive understanding of the financial services industry. He graduated in Economics in 1981. His experience, gained over 40 years, includes being a director of a UK unit trust company, a director of a UK life assurance company, the developer of one of Europe’s first UCITS registered umbrella funds, a director of a multi-manager hedge funds company and the CEO of an investment research company. He also owns the Shivering Mountain Distillery.
Alex Burn
Malaczynski Burn
Chair
Alex has over 30 years’ experience in finance. He holds an MBA from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, an H Dip Tax from the University of Johannesburg, and a Higher Education Teaching Certificate from Harvard University. He pioneered one of South Africa’s first international multi-manager product ranges, he develops bespoke investment solutions and advises on Private Equity portfolios. He regularly addresses audiences on investments, ethics, and education.
Malik Shehu
Malaczynski Burn
Senior Analyst
Malik holds an undergraduate degree in Finance, is a Chartered
Financial Analyst, which he completed in record time and holds an MBA with a specialization in
Finance.
Malik lectures aspiring CFA Charter holders and remains committed to promoting financial
literacy and investment awareness, empowering individuals to make informed financial decisions.
Dr Sophie Shapter
Clinical Psychologist
With a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and broad professional experience, Sophie combines strong theoretical grounding with real-world experience across diverse settings, using this to understand people, teams, and leadership potential. This provides insight to strengthen the fund’s ability to identify exceptional distillers and teams.
Jamie Baxter
Distiller
Jamie Baxter found himself right at the start of the craft distilling movement in U.K. building and then running Chase Distillery in 2006. Five years later he set himself up as a consultant to craft distillers and has now helped over 100 get started in U.K., EU, Africa and Asia.
Ian Zant-Boer
Corporate Lawyer
A Cambridge-educated lawyer and Harold Samuel Scholar, Ian holds both a degree and PhD from the University. After teaching law at Cambridge for five years, he built a distinguished career in corporate law, earning recognition as a Legal 500 "Leading Individual' and specialising in venture capital and private equity. He also co-founded a law firm and three venture capital businesses and served as CEO of Growthdeck for seven years. Ian is also FCA registered.
Chris Horne & Julie Ryalls
Brew School
Founders
Chris & Julie started Brew School in 2014. Brew School holds inspirational brewing courses and has also held a large number of distilling courses including their Practical Commercial Distilling Course. The school's craft distilling courses quickly became internationally recognised and allowed the founders a unique view of entrepreneurs’ creation of new distilleries.
Contact Us
Investing in start-ups and early-stage companies involves risks, including illiquidity, lack of dividends, loss of investment and dilution. It should be done only as part of a diversified portfolio. There is no assurance that the investment objectives of any investment opportunity will be achieved or that the strategies and methods described herein will be successful. Past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance and the value of an investment may go down as well as up.
The investments are targeted exclusively at investors who understand the risks of investing in early-stage businesses and can make their own investment decisions. Any pitches for investment are not offers to the public and investments can only be made through Sapphire Capital Partners LLP as the fund manager. Neither Venture Flows Limited, Sapphire Capital Partners LLP nor any of their members, directors or employees provide any financial, legal or tax advice in relation to the investments and investors are recommended to seek independent advice before committing or if they have any doubts as to the appropriateness or suitability of such an investment in relation to their specific circumstances.Investments made in investee companies via funds managed by Sapphire Capital Partners LLP may be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). For more details, please contact us or refer to their website: https://www.fscs.org.uk
