English winemaker Chapel Down is looking to raise up to £6m ($8.1m) from shareholders to invest in production.
In a stock-exchange filing today (4 November), the AIM-listed company announced a conditional placing of new shares at 43p each to raise about £5.5m before fees.
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The company also plans a separate retail offer for UK-based shareholders, which it said could raise up to a further £500,000.
The funds will primarily bankroll a £4.5m investment in a new soft pressing facility at the company’s Tenterden winery in Kent.
The scheme includes an additional press, ten 50,000-litre tanks and the installation of automation equipment.
Around £600,000 will go towards working capital, with the remaining £400,000 earmarked for fees and expenses.
The project would take the winery’s number of presses from four to five.
Chapel Down said the move would lift annual production of Traditional Method Sparkling (TMS) wine at Tenterden from 2.1 million bottles to 2.4 million in an average harvest.
In higher-yield years, output could reach 2.8 million bottles.
The winemaker said the investment would allow about 300,000 bottles a year, currently sold as lower-margin still or carbonated wine, to be made and sold as TMS instead.
Planning permission has been granted, with construction expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2026 after this year’s harvest.
The project is expected to be fully operational for the 2027 harvest, with the “first incremental TMS wines” from the new facility ready for sale from 2030.
Chapel Down is targeting to raise its annual gross margin from the change by £2m.
The new facility would also increase pressing throughput from 90 to 140 tonnes a day, which the company said would “reduce the time required to press an average-yield harvest” from 30 days to 21.
Chapel Down added it believes the project would give it the production capacity to reach its ambition of selling about 2.5 million bottles of TMS a year by 2033, two years ahead of its previous 2035 target. The volume is equivalent to a 1% share of global Champagne volumes, it said.
Last year, the company sold one million bottles of TMS wine, CEO James Pennefather told Just Drinks in an interview in September.
The placing is not subject to shareholder approval. The admission of the placing shares is expected on 10 November, while the retail offer is expected to run from around 4 November to 9 November.
Alongside the fundraising, Chapel Down gave an update on this year’s harvest. It brought in 2,706 tonnes of grapes, down from 2,882 tonnes in 2025. The yield of three tonnes per acre compares with 3.7 tonnes last year and is 9% below the five-year average of 3.3 tonnes.
The company blamed a late spring frost in May, which caused “modest damage” to limited areas. The winemaker, however, said the harvest should still produce about 2.5 million bottles, with the largest share being TMS.
Chapel Down reported interim results on 23 September. Net sales for the six months to 30 June rose 19% to £9.4m, while gross profit climbed 28% to £4.7m. TMS made up 74% of wine sales, compared with 70% a year earlier.
International sales were up 66%, helped by growth in the US, where distribution through importer Jackson Family Wines has expanded from 11 states to 31.
