Over recent years, there has been growing interest in English vineyards. There has been a proliferation of acquisitions and funding rounds in the sector, as new investors seek entry opportunities in the space and existing vineyards look to scale their businesses.
Henkell-Freixenet's Acquisition of Bolney Wine Estate
Freixenet-Copestick, a leader in the Sparkling Wine category, strengthened its position as a leading supplier in England with the acquisition of Bolney Estate in January 2022. This acquisition is expected to provide further international exposure and interest in English wine.
Bolney Estate
Freixenet-Copestick is a subsidiary of Henkell Freixenet, the world’s leading producer of sparkling wines, managing a portfolio of branded wines, beers and spirits, and large private label supply agreements.
Founded in 1972 by Janet and Rodney Pratt, Bolney Wine Estate is considered to be one of the UK winemaking pioneers and has five Sussex vineyard sites. It makes premium red, white, rosé and sparkling English wines, producing around 250,000 bottles p.a. with capacity to make 600,000 bottles p.a. It currently focusing on six key grape varieties: Pinot Noir, Rondo, Dornfelder, Chardonnay, Bacchus and Pinot Gris.
Bolney has a portfolio of first-class sparkling and still wines that have won several awards, most recently the UK Glass of Bubbly sustainability award. It owns and rents a total of 50 to 60 acres of vines.
Digby’s acquisition of Hilden Vineyard in Kent
Leading West Sussex-based sparkling wine producer Digby Fine English has selected wine and spirits fintech Ferovinum to lead its recent round of growth financing.
Ferovinum’s unique inventory-funding platform gave the Digby team a fast, flexible and seamless route to releasing working capital from their maturing wine stocks. It was utilised to initiate a broad £2.5m fundraising push which is enabling Digby to pursue the next chapter in its vision of world-class quality and brand permanence – with the first major project being Digby’s acquisition of the top Pinot vineyard in its portfolio, Digby’s Hilden Vineyard in Kent.
Hilden Vineyard
The deal comes at a time of strong post-Covid growth and increased opportunity for Digby, as its trophy-winning wines continue to be recognized as amongst the UK industry’s finest – most recently with Digby 2014 Vintage Rosé being crowned Best Sparkling Rosé at the WineGB Awards and its Leander Pink NV Brut winning the trophy as the UK’s Best Sparkling Rosé in venerable Tom Stevenson’s World Championships.
Digby Fine English CEO Trevor Clough wanted to find a way to build on this success and momentum with the right financial partner. He commented: ‘Ferovinum was the natural partner for our refinancing and it made complete sense to use our greatest asset, our maturing wine, to support our growth plans. We were able to easily lower our financing costs, invest back into our business and set up a flexible arrangement that can be scaled on our terms. Ferovinum co-founder Mitchel Fowler added: ‘It’s a very exciting time to be a wine producer in the UK, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with Digby Fine English, which is one of its most impressive and innovative businesses. Our platform has been created to help producers like Digby explore new initiatives and dynamic ways of growing their business, and to quickly take advantage of opportunities. By giving producers a new way to release capital, without relying on shareholders’ equity or bank debt, we are fast becoming an invaluable tool for wine and spirits companies looking to invest in their brands and businesses for the future.’
Cadman Capital Group acquired Alder Ridge Vineyard
Cadman Capital Group purchased Alder Ridge Vineyard and brand in September 2022, strengthening its position in the growing English sparkling wine market.
Based in Berkshire, Alder Ridge is an award-winning vineyard that has been producing traditional method English sparkling wine for over 9 years. The purchase increases the Group’s land under vine ownership to over 130 acres, firmly positioning it as one of the leading landowners in the sector.
Alder Ridge Vineyard
The deal also secured distribution of Cadman’s existing beverage brands, across the Cobbs Farm Shops estate, the former owner of Alder Ridge.
“The acquisition of Alder Ridge represents a commitment to strengthen our portfolio with high performing businesses with considerable opportunities to create value. We are really looking forward to bringing our years of real life operating experience to the Alder Ridge business.” James Dinsdale, CEO of Cadman Capital Group
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