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 inventory-funding platform gave the Digby team a 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.
The deal comes at a time of strong post Covid-19 growth and increased opportunity for Digby, as its trophy-winning wines continue to be recognised as among 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 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.
“We looked at a number of different options, but what set the Ferovinum team apart was the time and effort they took to really understand our business. The platform was new to us, but very simple to use, giving us full control and many added advantages across the supply chain. With the addition of experienced, hands-on support from their team, Ferovinum suited our needs far better than a traditional finance model.”
Founded in 2018, specialist fintech business Ferovinum claims to be transforming the way wine and spirit businesses finance growth. Run by an experienced global team of finance, wine and spirits experts, its proprietary technology uses a commodities-based financing model to help producers, distributors and merchants turn their liquid assets into working capital which is repaid when the wine or spirits are ready to sell.
Ferovinum co-founder Mitchel Fowler said: “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.”
This story was taken from the latest issue of Vineyard. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports for winemakers and growers in Great Britain, read our latest issue here and subscribe here.
