Case study with Crimson Tide (AIM:TIDE)

Industry: Consumer Goods / Spirits
Headquarters: Edinburgh
Market cap: ~£20-30M

Problem.

Artisanal Spirits Company (ART) faced a disconnect between business value and share price driven by low liquidity on AIM. The company lacked infrastructure to manage a shareholder benefits programme at scale whilst maintaining direct relationships with their investor base.

Solution.

ART rebuilt their investor website as an interactive hub with the support of InvestorHub. In doing this they implemented shareholder identification and engagement tools, allowing them to launch an enhanced shareholder benefits programme that seamlessly converts customers to investors.

Impact.

ART now manages thousands of shareholders enrolled in their benefits programme and has built a positive liquidity flywheel. This has successfully re-energised their retail investor base whilst maintaining complete ownership of their investor relationships and data.

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InvestorHub provides a unique opportunity for consumer brands.

As a direct-to-consumer business, ART already knew how to build engaged communities. Members had been loyal for decades, some for over 40 years, and the membership model created a natural sense of ownership.

At IPO in 2021, this connection proved powerful. About 10% of existing UK members invested more than £1,000 in shares, raising approximately £3 million from the membership base alone. That portion of the raise was oversubscribed.

There was one problem: the infrastructure to maintain and scale company-member relationships didn't exist.

ART identified a clear strategy: build a positive flywheel of liquidity starting with retail investors and smaller institutions, then gradually attract larger players as momentum built. The challenge was execution. Low liquidity creates a vicious cycle — without liquidity, institutional investors can't commit. Without institutional investors, liquidity remains low.

"We're direct-to-consumer, we're used to talking directly to the people who are interested. We found it odd that it was more difficult to do. When the opportunity presented itself with InvestorHub, it was a natural fit for us."

Andrew Dane

CEO @ AIM:ART

ART needed infrastructure that would enable them to apply their direct-to-consumer expertise to investor relations. So, they implemented three critical components with the support of InvestorHub:

Rebuilt investor website infrastructure.

The existing investor relations website was no longer fit for purpose. ART rebuilt it as an interactive hub, taking a "funnel view" like a normal direct-to-consumer business. "We thought, what's the purpose of that site now? We've been on the market for a few years, what are people looking for? Let's really simplify, let's really focus, let's make it easy."

Shareholder identification and structure.

Understanding who the real beneficial owners of the business are has always been difficult for listed companies. ART has used InvestorHub to build a much clearer picture of their true shareholder base: who actually holds shares, and how that ownership structure is changing over time.

Enhanced shareholder benefits programme.

At the core of the strategy was a relaunched shareholder benefits programme with two tiers, designed to be sustainable, easy to operate, and drive behaviours ART wanted to encourage. Key benefits included discounts on membership renewals (essentially zero-cost to deliver), targeted product discounts (10–20%) on specific ranges, and exclusive limited-edition bottlings for shareholders who invested during specific windows. "Nobody's come back to us to say we don't like your benefits program. We now have thousands of people enrolled."

This made shareholders feel special without breaking the bank.

The success of ART's shareholder benefits programme came from three design principles:

Make it easy to operate. Nobody's looking to introduce more complexity or cost into the business. The programme needed to run without operational burden.
Make it sustainable. There's nothing worse than promising benefits and having to take them away later. ART carefully calculated costs in advance and structured benefits they could maintain long-term.
Target behaviours you want to encourage. Not every benefit needs to be generous — be strategic. ART gave meaningful discounts on membership renewals (driving retention) whilst using smaller 10–20% discounts on specific product ranges to encourage discovery of other brands in their portfolio.

At The shareholder benefits programme works in both directions, creating value across the entire business. Existing members came into the listing and became owners, deepening their connection to the brand. ART also discovered a few hundred investors who weren't yet members — another opportunity to bring them into the Scottish Malt Whisky Society community (ART's trading subsidiary).

"It definitely works in both directions. You take members and bring them even more into your world by making them owners. But we also found a few hundred investors who aren't members yet — there's another opportunity."

Andrew Dane

CEO @ AIM:ART

When ART relaunched their enhanced benefits programme, they created a time-limited offer: any shareholder who doubled their IPO investment by 30 June would receive an exclusive limited-edition bottling and access to the higher benefits tier.

"The cost of that relative to other engagement opportunities is good, but also the level of positive feedback that comes from someone getting an exclusive 21-year-old whisky that only they have — the goodwill comes back in spades."

Andrew Dane

CEO @ AIM:ART

AIM:ART used these features to power their shareholder loyalty programme:

Investor CRM

Interactive investor hub

Automated announcement distribution

Email campaigns

Investor Q&As

Interactive announcements

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Transforming Artisanal Spirits Company's customers to investors through InvestorHub

InvestorHub provides a unique opportunity for consumer brands.

Rebuilt investor website infrastructure.

Shareholder identification and structure.

Enhanced shareholder benefits programme.

This made shareholders feel special without breaking the bank.

AIM:ART used these features to power their shareholder loyalty programme:

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