Restaurant magazine publisher William Reed reports turnover and Ebitda growth: Restaurant magazine and MCA publisher William Reed has reported turnover and profit growth for the year to 31 March 2016. Underlying turnover was up 4% to £46.2m (2015: £44.5m) and underlying Ebitda grew by 5% to £8.1m (2015: £7.7m) – underlying turnover and Ebitda is derived after evened-out revenue from biennial exhibitions. Underlying Ebitda margin grew by 1% to 18%. The year-end net cash was £25.4m (2015: £18.1m). Pre-tax profit was £3,481,000 compared with £1,794,000 the year before. A dividend of £356,000 was paid (2015: £238,000). Face-to-face events accounted for £14,855,000 of turnover (2015: £11,568,000), digital revenue was £12,661,000 (2015: £11,934,000), traditional magazines saw £12,018,000 of sales (down from £12,463,000 the year before) and insight produced sales of £4,856,000 (2015: £4,671,000). A total of circa £12m of sales come from outside the UK – £4,958,000 in Europe, £4,184,000 from the US and £3,018,000 from the rest of the world. Staff number reduced by one to 368. The highest paid director earned £549,000 including bonuses (2015: £535,000). Morning Advertiser magazine, in which William Reed holds a 75% stake and Licensed Trade Charity holds a 25% stake, saw turnover of £3,986,000 in the year to 31 March 2016 (2015: £4,014,000). Profit before tax was £584,000 (£510,000). The company’s HIM research subsidiary saw turnover of £3,343,000 in the year to 31 March 2016 (2015: £3,345,000). Profit before tax was £983,000 (2015: £900,000). One observer said: “William Reed is a food and drink specialist publisher and its performance has been as resilient as the wider foodservice market. The trick for traditional publishers in recent years has been to develop face-to-face events, digital and insights revenue streams as the print advertising market declines. William Reed’s magazine publishing income is now outstripped by both digital and face-to-face, which is a great achievement. Moreover, it has also developed strong international revenue.” 

Ohio backs BrewDog, one-third of investors come from state that will house new brewery: Scottish brewer and retailer BrewDog has revealed the top five US states in terms of investment into its US crowdfunding campaign – with Ohio, where the company’s new brewery is being built, way out in first place with more than one-third of investors. The Equity for Punks USA campaign raised $1m within its first three days, with the company aiming to raise $50m on startup platform BankRoll by selling 1,052,632 shares of stock in BrewDog USA for £47.50 per share – the minimum investment is two shares ($95 each). The company revealed 38% of investors were Ohio residents, with California second (8%), followed by Texas (5%), Pennsylvania (4%), and Florida (4%). BrewDog stated on its blog: “The welcome we have received since we started construction of our 42-acre site in Columbus has been nothing short of stunning. It’s fantastic that our new second home has so many Equity Punks already.” BrewDog’s 100,000 square foot brewery is nearing completion in Columbus, with the first brew scheduled for November. The facility will also feature a restaurant, tap room, retail space, visitor centre and beer garden. Long-term, the company said the site could support an annual capacity “in excess of 1.5m barrels”.