Those of you who have been paying close attention to the goings on at Sapling Spirits might have heard some intreeguing (last tree pun, we promise) news. Those of you who haven’t, we have a rather special announcement to make: we have opened up our crowdfunding initiative to the public! That’s right, if you’re reading this, you have the opportunity to invest in Sapling Spirits: the chance to own a piece of the best sustainable vodka on and for the planet! Our Seedrs campaign is open and canny investors aplenty are getting in on the action: click here if you’re ready to join them!
Investing in the planet.
Those of you who’d like a little bit more information should read on, as this blog post will dig (sorry) a little deeper into this rare opportunity to invest in something exciting, ethical and potentially very rewarding not just for your bank balance but also for something so much more important: our planet and the air we breathe.
Sustainable roots.
Sapling Spirits is not just a business. It has never been only about money. Right from the beginning, we set out to create a company that did things differently: buying our British premium vodka or gin doesn’t line pockets, it plants trees. Which is a fabulous thing to do. But there’s so much more to us than that: a spirit of sustainability runs right the way through our company, much as our silky smooth premium British vodka mixes with a glorious Bloody Mary. Inseparable.
Invest with your head and your heart.
But isn’t this supposed to be a blog about investment? Why are we talking environmental sustainability and trees? The answer is simple. It’s because our green credentials don’t detract from our commercial success: they enhance it. Just to give you one example, take our 5-litre eco box that we use to supply 85% of our on-trade customers. By supplying our premium British vegan vodka and gin in this packaging, we massively reduce the consumption of our (stunning) glass bottles. We also lower delivery costs and increase our customers’ and our own margins, as one bag in box contains over seven bottles’ worth of spirit.
Better spirits and better business.
It also opens the door wide open to scale, and quickly. Our ability to grow the number of bars, clubs and restaurants we supply is massively enhanced by the fact that we can be stocked far more easily than other premium spirits. Assuming it’s the sort of place we’re happy to be served in, all licensees need to do is purchase a few bags in boxes, invest in a some beautiful branded bottles to display, and they’re ready to please customers for a decent length of time. Not only that, but they’re reducing their carbon footprint by 25% compared with buying glass bottles in the usual way. If you wanted to get technical about it, you could describe this as ‘sustainability as a competitive advantage’. Or if you want to take more of a Sapling Spirits approach, we’d simply say it’s a ‘climate positive’.
Moving on up.
Of course, totally revolutionising the way that we supply our on-trade customers with our premium vodka and gin is just one of a myriad of reasons why investing in us is a good idea. Even if you were to ignore our environmental credentials (something that we would absolutely never do), the investment numbers make good reading. We’ve been growing by 80% year on year, and that growth shows no signs of abating. Over the last 12 months, we’ve sold over £1.3m worth of sustainable vegan vodka and gin.
An experienced crew.
Unsurprisingly, investors are taking notice. We’ve already secured private funding from some of the best-known backers in the industry, and the uptake of public investors like you and us is no less enthusiastic. In fact, with 28 days of our Seedrs campaign still to run, we have already exceeded our initial target of £1m, based on an overall pre-money valuation of £13.8m. What this means is that we’ll have the financial capacity to see through our ambitious growth plans, enabling us to expand our premium British vodka and gin brand into new export markets and more shops.
Leading the way to a greener future.
Remember, investing in us isn’t just about backing a business that’s positioned for growth. It’s also a way to support an approach to spirits production that will bring enormous environmental benefits. The more people invest, the more bottles we’ll sell, the more regenerative wheat we’ll grow and the more trees we’ll plant. We profoundly hope that our success will pave the way for a more sustainable approach to drinks production becoming the norm. That can only be a good thing for us, for our investors and, most importantly, our planet.
Every sapling helps.
You don’t need to invest a lot of money to become part of the Sapling Mission. In fact, it actively helps us to have a large number of investors, rather than fewer investors who put in more. We truly believe that we’re onto something seriously ground-breaking (in more ways than one). It’s going to be a wonderful ride.
Join us.
Love,
The Sapling Team
