Fourpure has been sold to Australian-headquartered food and drink business, owned by Kirin Holdings Company, for an undisclosed sum.

Commenting on the sale, brothers Dan and Tom Lowe who co-founded the business, explained: “It has been a lengthy process to get us to this point, we’ve spoken to a broad range of investors and been transparent about our ambition to our team and the industry.

“Private equity, bank debt, and crowdfunding are all things we worked really hard on exploring, always knowing Tom and I could not take this journey alone. We wanted the transition to be unambiguous and we both worked to be authentic throughout.” 

Discussing the decision to sell to Lion, Lowe said it was because it is a “great business with fantastic people, strong sustainability credentials and a lot of expertise we can learn from”.

They added: “We also think there’s a very good cultural fit and we see a fantastic opportunity to work together to grow both Fourpure and Lion’s suite of craft beers, ciders and fine wines.”

The company added that immediate focus is to remain in London, for as long as capacity permits.

Lowe said: “The focus in the short to medium term is to continue to enhance our spiritual home, through improvements to safety, operating capacity and our broader sales, marketing and hospitality experience.

“In the event that the brand grows beyond the capacity in our current site, we will look at alternatives to enable the business to continue to expand.”