Partner Article

Yorkshire soup entrepreneur receives £2.4 million funding to expand factory

Soup-maker Yorkshire Provender, founded by entrepreneur Belinda Wiliams, is planning to double the size of its North Yorkshire factory to meet growing demand after a £2.4 million funding injection.

The new facility is expected to be completed by next September and will employ 30 workers, an increase on the 12 currently employed.

A bank loan is providing funds for half the projecy, and the rest is being funded by a grant from the Regional Growth Fund, and by the company itself after years of rising sales.

Turnover at the firm is expected to rise to £5.3 million by May 2015, up by a third in a year.

Founded by Belinda Williams seven years ago, Yorkshire Provender uses ingredients from local farms and suppliers to make its soups and now supplies Tesco, Waitrose, Co-op stores and independent food halls and farm shops.

Yorkshire Provender has also supplied Harrods, Selfridges and Ocado.

The firm has also landed a contract with a major UK coffee shop chain to supply branches with a breakfast offering from January.

Belinda Williams said: “Big weekly food shops are becoming less popular, and people are more likely to just pick up something on the way home from work. It plays into our hands very nicely, as soup is both healthy and easy to make so is becoming more popular.”

“The pressure is always to enhance and develop what we produce. We’re cautious but confident. There is a huge market out there for nutritious and simple-to-make meals.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .