Refinance your brewery or distillery property

Ardent Capital Group brings the same method to every client: execution and strategy, clear advice for smart lending, and long-term growth. That means the right lender, structure and timing, straight advice so you borrow with confidence, and today's deal built toward where you want to be tomorrow. On a production site the shell and the plant move in opposite directions, and lenders split on whether the taproom counts at all. We work out which policy your file belongs under before a valuation is ordered, present the excise cycle as the record it is, and stay with it past drawdown. Every figure is subject to serviceability, lender appetite and approval.

We refinance commercial facilities from $50K up to $30M on the property side, with the brewhouse, tanks, still and packaging line funded separately alongside it. The new property limit follows a fresh valuation of the shell and current servicing, not what you originally borrowed.

Because this asset sits between two lending policies and most institutions only hold one of them. We run the comparison across more than 40 lenders, work out which will count the taproom trade rather than valuing a bare industrial shed, and which will model excise in the cash flow instead of ignoring it, and present to one at a time so your credit file does not collect an enquiry for every conversation. We also model the break costs, valuation and legals against what moving actually gains you.

55% to 65% of the current value on the freehold, with the banks generally at 55% to 60% and non-banks reaching 65%. The plant is funded separately on its own chattel lines and does not form part of that figure, which is the point most owners find surprising.

Because it is a specialised chattel and the resale market for one is very small. A lender lending against equipment is asking what it would realise if it had to be sold, and for a brewhouse, a still or a set of fermentation tanks the honest answer is not much relative to what they cost. It means the equity available at a refinance sits in the industrial shell, because the industrial shell behaves like property, and a release is sized against that.

That depends entirely on which lender, and it is the largest fork on this asset. Major banks generally assess the industrial shell and exclude the taproom trade from the valuation. Non-bank lenders assess the shell plus the taproom trade. On a site where direct sales have become the best margin in the business, the same numbers produce very different outcomes depending on which policy applies. Establishing that before a valuation is ordered is most of the work.

As a documented cycle rather than a forecast. Excise leaves the business before the product has been sold and paid for, which is structural rather than a poor month, and a lender that does not model it will misread the cash flow. Several years of payment history set beside the production volumes turns it from a claim into evidence, and lets a working capital line be sized against the real obligation including the peaks. On spirits the maturation gap between paying for stock and selling it sits on top of that.

Reconcile it before an application rather than during one. The permitted use, the liquor licence conditions, the capacity approvals and the parking were all set for the site as it was, usually an industrial tenancy, and what happens there on a Saturday now can be some distance from that. Where they have drifted apart it reads far better assembled and explained by you than turned up in a search. Most of it is resolvable given time, which is exactly what an application does not give you.

Yes, it is possible, and we arrange these. It is also one of the more intricate refinances in commercial finance, and the detail is what decides whether it works. From 10 August 2026 a new arrangement can only be used for business real property, and a trading production site qualifies. It has to stay the same single property, and it is limited to the balance outstanding plus accrued interest, so there is no top up, no redraw and no cash out inside the fund. Borrowed money cannot fund an improvement either, so a taproom fit-out or a capacity expansion comes from the resources of the fund, and the plant is a separate question again because it is financed outside the property in any case. The holding trust is reassigned to the incoming lender rather than dissolved, which carries a legal cost worth weighing against the gain. The operating entity leases the site back in writing, at market rent supported by an independent appraisal, and the rent has to actually be paid, which is worth checking where a taproom has been added since. Cross-collateralisation is not available inside super. Fund the deposit from the fund itself, since cross-collateralisation is not available in super, the major banks have exited SMSF lending, and lenders want a liquidity buffer left in the fund after settlement. We know this sounds complicated, and we can assist to make things clearer. Reach out to our team and we will guide you through the entire process. We structure the finance, tell you which lenders will take a production site as SMSF security and on what terms, and bring in the SMSF specialists and licensed advisers who set the fund side up. You will not be working it out on your own.

As plant, on its own terms, usually from a release against the shell. Capacity in this business grows from the equipment side long before it needs another building. The interaction with cash flow matters: more production means more excise leaving earlier, so an expansion tightens the working capital position at exactly the moment it is supposed to be lifting revenue. Funding the plant and the excise on the extra volume together is the version that works.

Often not, and on this asset a decline is frequently a policy mismatch rather than a judgement on the business. A file built around taproom growth taken to a lender whose policy excludes taproom trade produces a valuation describing a bare shed and a decline that looks inexplicable. The same file elsewhere is assessed on what the site actually does. We look at how it was assessed and why the answer was no, then place it where that reason is not the deciding one.

Around three to six weeks with a major bank and two to four weeks with a non-bank lender. A file that also moves plant finance takes longer, one where the permitted use has to be reconciled first takes longer again, and SMSF refinances are longer than either. We give you a realistic timeline at the start so you can plan the expiry date around it.

The existing loan statements for the property and every plant line, two to three years of financial statements and tax returns for the operating entity, production volumes with the excise payment history beside them, a split of revenue between wholesale, taproom and contract work, the liquor licence and its conditions, the permitted use and any approvals for the taproom, personal tax returns and notices of assessment for the guarantors, and a statement of assets and liabilities.

The costs are a valuation, legal and settlement fees, any lender establishment fee, discharge costs from each current lender, and break costs where you are leaving a fixed rate. Where plant lines are moving as well there are further payout figures to obtain. We put the real numbers against the benefit before you commit to anything.

Most of the time, no. Where the permitted use or the licence position has to be sorted out before the file can go to a lender, a small mandate fee may apply, and we will always be upfront about this before any work begins.

Although we are based in Sydney, we service clients across all major Australian cities, including Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Adelaide, Canberra and Hobart, along with their surrounding regional areas. Wherever your production site is, we can arrange your finance.

Beyond refinancing the site, we also assist with asset finance and working capital. On asset finance, that covers brewhouses, fermentation and bright tanks, stills, canning and bottling lines, kegs, coolrooms, taproom fit-out and delivery vehicles. On working capital, we arrange business overdrafts and lines of credit sized to grain, malt and botanicals, the excise cycle and the maturation gap on spirits, and we can fold these into the refinance where it makes sense.