GlenWyvis Distillery Nears £1.5M Funding Goal During the Final Two Days on Crowdfunder UK

With just two days left until its Crowdfunder UK campaign comes to an end, Scotland’s GlenWyvis Distillery has secured over £1.4 million from 1200 investors.

As previously reported, GlenWyvis Distillery Community Benefit Society, based in the historic Highland town of Dingwall, is hoping to realize its long-held ambition to create Scotland’s very first community-owned craft whiskey distillery. The campaign’s launch was organized in conjunction with Community Shares Scotland (CSS) and will offer investment opportunities for as little as £250 to locals living in all IV postcode areas. This will ensure a high level of local ownership of the distillery, but the Share Offer is also open to whiskey lovers worldwide with investment opportunities rising in tranches* to a maximum investment of £100,000.

Construction of the distillery is due to commence in this month with the first run of whiskey planned for Burns Night 25 January 2017. The distillery will produce craft Scottish whiskey and there are plans for an associated Visitor Centre in the town to be added as part of a wider plan to recreate Dingwall as the Craft Distillery Town of Scotland and as a quality tourism destination on the North Coast 500 route.

John F. McKenzie founder of GlenWyvis, stated:

“We are going all out now to make this a success and the GlenWyvis team are pushing hard to cross the £1.5 million line by Friday – it is going to be a close run thing but still time for people to invest and join us. We are running a number of investment opportunities to make sure as many people can be involved as possible.”

“Investors can pledge as little as £10 to have their name added to the GlenWyvis flag that will fly 365 days a year above the distillery and can also have their name added to the ‘Path to the Stills’ element at £30 – on the path leading up to the Stills when the distillery is built. The Path will start at the bottom of the hill and will run through the front door and finish in front of the two stills called ‘Glen’ and ‘Wyvis.’ It will be a legacy pathway in years to come, as people will visit from across the world to visit Dingwall and the Visitor Centre and see their names and those of friends and family.”

Community Shares Scotland, Programme Manager, Kelly McIntyre commented:

“It is a massive achievement to even reach £1 million and goes to show the depth of interest that communities at large have in this type of community share project. We can only encourage potential investors to get behind it in the last few days, to make some living history – and act as a beacon for any other communities thinking they would like to make their projects a reality.”

Phil Geraghty, MD of Crowdfunder added:

“GlenWyvis has run an outstanding crowdfunding campaign – and the crowd have responded by backing the project to the tune of nearly £1.4m already. This is a true showcase of sheer innovation in community shares being used to create a community-owned business. Not only that, the GlenWyvis campaign is on track to become Crowdfunder’s largest project and we are excited to work alongside the teams as they look to smash the exciting £1.5m mark.”