Cawston Press raises £1m in fundraising

The total has been reached through existing shareholders, members of the Cawston Press team from the UK, Australia and the US, as well as a select number of private investors in the food and drink industry.

Steve Kearns, managing director of Cawston Press, said: “​Our team is made up of people who want to make better-quality soft drinks the norm, not the niche.​

‘External fundraising round’​

“When we initially considered undertaking a full external fundraising round, we quickly realised that there was sufficient appetite from within our own ‘Cawston Crowd’ of founder shareholders, the management team and close industry contacts to raise the necessary money ourselves. We are delighted that many of the wider team have chosen to participate and have now become shareholders in the business.”​

The fundraising comes following the recent introduction of no added sugar sparkling range recipes in the UK as well as a continued push for international distribution.

Speciality food channels​

In 2017, the brand first launched into the US natural and speciality food channels and is now supporting this market with a bigger local team and key retailer trade marketing programmes.

Cawston Press sparkling drinks will also launch in France later this summer.

The brand was also one of the key soft drinks companies to reformulate ahead of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy by only using pressed fruit juice to sweeten its drinks​​.