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NEWS
Flavourly closes crowd- fund at £515,000
Flavourly, the gourmet food, snacks and craft beer subscription club that turned down four investment offers from TV’s Dragons’ Den, has closed its campaign on Crowdcube, having raised £515,000 through the crowd-funding platform. Te total is 65 per cent over its £300k
target (reached on 21 March) and has seen 339 investors take 34 per cent of the company’s equity. Te sum is more than six times larger than the £75,000 offered by the Dragons (for a 20 per cent stake) on the programme broadcast in February. According to Crowdcube, Flavourly is the first ever Scottish company to raise more than £500,000 through a crowd-fund. Flavourly is the brainchild of 26-year-
old Scottish entrepreneur Ryan O’Rorke. Having seen his father, an amateur honey maker, struggle to sell products outside his local circle, O’Rorke found 75 per cent of small British producers do not have the resources or infrastructure to sell direct to consumers or to the multiples.
Flavourly selects the finest
independently-produced gourmet food, snacks and craft beer and delivers them in a package to customers each month. Popular products include bacon jam, chilli popcorn and venison, mushroom and whisky pasta sauce. O’Rorke launched Flavourly in
November 2012 from his grandmother’s garage in Edinburgh. Since then the company has grown 500 per cent year on year, shipping more than 500,000 products from over 300 small British producers. Its craft beer club was launched in 2014 and received 4,000 orders on the first day. On Dragons’ Den, O’Rorke was seen
pitching for £75,000 and received four separate investment offers, plus a job offer from Kelly Hoppen. Viewers saw O’Rorke accept a joint bid from Piers Linney and Peter Jones in exchange for a 20 per cent stake of the business. However, following the show’s recording, O’Rorke and Flavourly
wnDirect has launched the world’s first worldwide click and collect solution
wnCollect
In the highly competitive retail environment delivery has become as much of a differentiator as the products themselves. Whereas home delivery and same day options were once seen as innovative the ever demanding consumer continues to drive the bar ever higher. Retailers now recognise that by offering flexible and convenient delivery options they can further differentiate themselves from their competitors. Click and Collect, or PUDO, solutions
have continued to gather momentum as these work well for both parties. For the retailer this option can be more cost effective as parcels are grouped by location reducing the total number of ‘drops’ and there are less ‘failed’ deliveries. Customers are also confident that they will be able to go and collect their parcel at a time and location convenient to them. To date, however, PUDO options have been incredibly localised and ‘patchy’ and far from comprehensive in terms of being an international solution. Until now. Until wnCollect.
Direct Commerce |
www.directcommercemagazine.com Commenting on the launch Chloe
Harris, Head of Innovation said: “Shoppers are used to being able to order online at anytime, anywhere; as a result they now expect the same level of flexibility from the delivery options. We live in a busy world and waiting in for a delivery is met with increasing intolerance. Even specific time windows can present challenges for those whose schedule is subject to change. wnCollect represents the Utopian vision of an international delivery solution; the reality is even the most flexible delivery solutions can’t compete with the round-the-clock availability of a locker bank. Tese solutions have gathered momentum but by being able to offer this on a global basis we really are changing the delivery game.”
CEO Assean Sheikh decided to decline the Dragons’ offer and pursue other investment opportunities. Since Dragons’ Den aired, Flavourly has gained thousands of new subscribers and sales have increased tenfold. Tey are expected to reach £1m this year. Says Ryan O’Rorke: ‘We’ve always
believed in the strength our product but to have exceeded our target in such a dramatic way is truly amazing. We warmly welcome all our new investors and have huge and exciting growth plans to make Flavourly the go-to destination for gourmet food, snacks and craft beer across Europe.’
RS Components to distribute GripIt
Jordan Daykin, the teenage entrepreneur who invented the revolutionary universal plasterboard fixing GripIt with his Grandad, has announced RS Components (RS) as a preferred distribution partner. Te deal comes less than a year after
19-year-old Jordan appeared on the BBC TV series Dragons’ Den asking for investment in his fledgling Wiltshire manufacturing business. With operations in 32 countries,
Electrocomponents plc offers around 500,000 products online, through catalogues and at trade counters, shipping more than 44,000 parcels a day. RS Components has secured exclusive rights to distribute a second generation GripIt range for 2 months. Ben Lawton, Head of Category at RS
Components said: “We’re dedicated to providing products to our customers which solve day-to-day challenges, making their lives easier. Te GripIt is an innovative, new-to-market product offering high loading capabilities, ease of installation and consistent reliability to rival the traditional plasterboard fixing. Jordan’s passion and commitment for the product and its development is inspiring and the GripIt is a simple and effective British invention.”
Ryan O’Rorke
NEWS
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