Member Article

Nim's Fruit Crisps achieve record Tesco 'raise'

A new range of air dried fruit and vegetable crisps are set to be launched this year after the producer secured the largest ever raise on a new supermarket-backed crowdfunding platform.

Entrepreneur Nimisha Raja has ambitious plans to see Nim’s Fruit & Veg Crisps for kids rolled out across high street retailers and more than 5000 schools in the UK after 71 backers helped her achieve £22,761 of pledges through Tesco’s ‘BackIt’ campaign.

The funding will immediately be used to finalise specialist children packaging, attend a string of consumer and trade shows and kick-start a high profile PR and marketing campaign.

Some of it will also be directed into employing a part-time sales person, who will be responsible for liaising with potential stockists and pushing the first four varieties of apple, carrot, courgette and pear.

“When we set the £20k target we knew it was ambitious compared to previous raises on the platform, but we also recognised it was the level of support we needed to give our ‘Kids Range’ the launch it required,” explained Nimisha, who set up the business in 2014.

“To actually surpass what we needed shows the appetite in this country for healthier snacks and ones that parents feel happy to give their children, knowing they taste great, look good and offer lots of vitamins.”

She continued: “Our different rewards – ranging from Nim’s subscriptions to having bespoke crisps made – proved very popular and we have to thank Tesco for the work it did in pushing our offer. Hopefully, we can now look at ways where we get our products into their stores.”

Nim’s Fruit and Vegetable Crisps, which are fat, gluten and dairy free, are manufactured at its bespoke ‘BRC’ accredited facility in Sittingbourne where it is capable of producing over 12 million packs of crisps a year.

The initial Nim’s Kids range has been developed with children’s taste buds in mind to introduce them to the concept and natural taste of air dried crisps and will consist of two fruit and two vegetable options, with more adventurous varieties planned over the coming months.

A lot of thought has also gone into making sure the packaging is visually appealing, but also carries a simple ingredient and nutrition listing so not to confuse parents with lots of mixed messages.

“Each pack is licensed by the Department of Health as being ‘1 of your 5 a day’, with 1 item on the ingredients list…it doesn’t get much simpler than that,” added Nimisha.

“I’m currently locked in discussion with a major retailer about launching multi-packs of Nim’s and with a distributor who can get our products into 5000 schools. That would be a very strong start towards our projections of producing between 300,000 and 500,000 children packs in 2017.”

Katie Hewitt, New Business Manager at Tesco ‘BackIt’, was delighted at the response: “This is our largest ever raise on ‘BackIt’ and proves that the platform is doing exactly what it was set up to do…to get fantastic independent producers out there in front of a captive audience.

“We are delighted that we have given Nim’s Fruit Crisps the opportunity to launch its Kids range and provide a healthy snack option for children all over the UK.”

The wider range of Nim’s Fruit Crisps features a total of eight different varieties, including beetroot and parsnip, pineapple and peppers & courgettes.

Its products should not be confused with dehydrated, vacuum fried, freeze dried or chewy baked fruit. Every pack – which is between 39 and 79 calories – is made up of thin slices of 100% natural fruit and veg crisps that have been air dried to produce a deliciously authentic ‘taste’ that adds a sense of fun to healthy eating.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Russ Cockburn .