London-based craft beer firm Beavertown is to open a new brewery and visitor site after Dutch brewer Heineken took a minority stake in the business.
The deal provides Beavertown, which was founded by Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant's son Logan, with the £40m in funding it needs for the project.
The new brewery will be called Beaverworld and will comprise a 45,000,000 litres brewing facility on 125,000 sq ft of land with an external visitor space. That makes it around 10 times bigger than Beavertown's existing 4,500,000 litres brewery in Tottenham Hale.
The five-vessel, fully automated brewhouse is expected to created 150 jobs and will sit within the M25.
Logan Plant said: "Crowdfunding simply couldn't achieve the funds we need so that option came off the table quickly.
"We then started looking at private equity which initially looked solid. However, the more we looked at the offers it became clear that it was only an option for the short to medium term.
"That was when we concluded that the most sensible and stable option was the one that sat furthest away from our minds at the start of the process, one that at first glance felt alien but on closer and more detailed inspection offered us boundless opportunities to grow and develop in the right, safe business manner. Finding another likeminded brewery as a partner.
"After talking to many parties, we can announce that the minority partner we have chosen to work with to make our vision for Beaverworld a reality is Heineken. In choosing Heineken, we've met the criteria we set ourselves and that were important to us as a company and a team. We retain full control of our destiny."
In a statement, Heineken said: "We're honoured that Beavertown has chosen to collaborate with us on the next step of their journey. We love what they're doing and are excited to be able to help them do more."
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