Hop Stuff brewing in South London has been brought out by Molson Coors. It hasnt brewed for a few months after issues with the landlord of its Thamesmead Brewery.
Ive tried the beers from time to time and if not cutting edge I thought they were drinkable and decent enough.
Aside from the brewery Hopstuff also have 3 taprooms and all these were based on crowdfunding.
With the buy out by Coors all the investors have lost their money. This hasnt gone down well in South London where many of the investors were local people
Of course crowdfunding comes with a clear warning that capital is at risk for investors. Hopstuff is not the first crowdfunded beer project to go under this year. Redchurch did recently.
The problem lies not with the beer but with the business model and how the business is run. James Yeomans who runs HopStuff will, it appears, carry on doing so. Its not clear what hit, if any, he has taken from the failure of the business but the Sunday Times (28th April 2019) did describe him as man that couldnt run a party in a crowdfunded brewery.
Start up small businesses quite often fail and the owners may well face a considerable financial impact as well as those who they traded with. Others do not. With crowdfunding it is the small investors who take the hit while, as it would seem here, those who were running things carry on.
It is unsatisfactory.
I’m a socialist and would prefer the economy to be run differently. However dont take it that I write the above simply because I dislike capitalism. I’m a trade union officer based in the Square Mile of the City of London. I represent who do their bit to keep capitalism going and, yes, I do own shares.
All this is regulated although often not as well as one might like. The concern with things like HopStuff is that regulation such as it is, is bringing into disrepute some models of funding business and to an extent also bringing into disrepute craft beer
“With crowdfunding it is the small investors who take the hit” – with any kind of business collapse the small investors take the hit. They made a bet, the bet lost. Nobody blames the bookies, the jockey or the horse if your tenner each way pick in the 3.15 at Kempton Park came in last.
Betting is highly regulated. Crowd funding is not
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