Member Article

Altrincham American food business refurbs with £12k BFS startup loan

Based in Altrincham Interchange, Whoots was originally set up in 2012 by three Directors, Liam Williamson, Matthew Madeley and Simon Thomas selling frozen yoghurts and smoothies to commuters.

When large areas of the tram station had to close for building work earlier this year, the Whoots team had to completely rethink their business model to enable them to go off site and deliver food direct to customers.

They developed a new American diner hot food menu including gourmet burgers, hot dogs, desserts and milkshakes and began to deliver direct to customers via Just-eat, turning over around £2k each week.

The team have now used their £12k funding to refurbish their kitchen and dining area and will be re-opening for business this week with plans to expand the menu further and create more local jobs for kitchen, waiting and delivery staff.

Whoots director Liam Williamson from Sale said: “The Start Up Now loan and support came at a critical time for us, when we were having to completely rethink our business model very quickly.

“We were immediately able to meet our BFS advisor face to face and worked with him to build a business plan and to draw down the funding we needed, which meant that we could put our refurbishment and plans in place without a negative impact on our service or revenue stream.

“Small businesses like ours need flexible, reactive support like this that works with companies to genuinely find a solution to their needs and help them to grow.

“Our new American diner business model and menu is proving to be far more popular and profitable than the original business and will enable us to hopefully expand in the future and replicate our independent restaurant model in other locations in the North West.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sophia Taha .