Member Article

Entrepreneurs overfund by £430k to propel healthy eating company across Yorkshire

Filmore & Union, a healthy eating company, is set to accelerate its expansion plans across Yorkshire and the North of England after exceeding a crowdfunding target by over £430k.

The company launched its campaign with Crowdcube, Europe’s largest online crowdfunding platform, in May this year with a target of £500k. Now Filmore & Union has successfully raised a total of £932k from 317 investors in return for 22.28% equity.

The extra funding enables the business to open more sites in a shorter space of time than initially planned, with a new site in Ilkley scheduled to open next week followed by restaurants in Harrogate at the end of August, Beverley in September, and an extension of the company’s Wetherby restaurant, also scheduled for September.

Filmore & Union will also use some of the capital raised to invest in a new cold press machine, which is relatively new to the UK from America, and retains more of the nutrients, fibre and protein from the fruit and vegetables.

The company was founded in 2011 by Adele Carnell, a former wellness clinic owner, and nephew Will Pugh, a Michelin trained chef, who were frustrated at the lack of healthy, unprocessed food on the high street.

The duo went on to open their first café and restaurant on Low Petergate, York, in March 2012 and now operate from 7 sites across Yorkshire, with a group turnover of £3.2m in 2014.

Over the next three years, Filmore & Union’s turnover is expected to increase by £3.8m with their profit set to rise by 207% and they expect to serve over 1 million of their fresh ‘remedy’ juices.

The company heavily invested in a new CPU (Central Production Unit), warehouse and head office in Wetherby last November to facilitate the expansion which also has the capacity to cater for up to 30 sites.

Filmore & Union’s director, Adele Carnell, said “We can’t believe we’ve managed to overfund by such a large amount – the response from customers and investors from across the country has been overwhelming and we want to thank everyone for their support during our journey so far.

“The majority of our investment has come from our customers which we are so honoured by and can’t wait to open up more Filmore & Unions across the region to meet their requests.

“Overfunding has meant we are able to speed up our growth which hopefully means investors will see a return quicker than planned.”

Looking to promote your product/service to SME businesses in your region? Find out how Bdaily can help →