The Ethical Butcher has reached out to the crowd for £350k to launch a direct-to-consumer arm for carbon negative meat.
Farshad Kazemian, who runs the London meat wholesaler, is seeking funds to set up a new online service to supply increasingly welfare-conscious consumers with ‘ethical meat boxes’.
The supplier will work with Pasture for Life Association (PLA) certified farmers, putting them on holisitic management courses to improve grassland management in order to offset carbon emissions and deliver carbon negative meat.
The Crowdcube campaign, launched this week, is offering potential investors 19.4% equity for the cash injection, based on a £1.45m valuation.
The Ethical Butcher will run an e-commerce retail arm, as well as a subscription meat box service, to supply consumers.
“At the minute the business is only B2B and we have a network of 50 farmers, but we will constant be looking to grow our supply base as customer numbers increase,” commented former Smithfield trader Kazemian.
“Turning to ethical methods will produce the highest quality meat, and that is exactly what customers want.
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“The service will run nationwide, and the funding will be used for working capital in the first instance.”
As well as PLA certified beef and sheepmeat, he Ethical Butcher also sets high minimum standards for the poultry, wild game and pork it supplies, Kazemian added.
Meat from the service will be to customers doorsteps packaged in biodegradable WoolCool, a compostable form of packaging that is a by-product of rearing sheep.
The supplier, which received support from Angel Investment Network, currently works predominantly in London’s restaurant and catering trade and has earned £1.37m revenue in the past two years.
The crowdfunding campaign follows an equity raise by meat box delivery firm Field & Flower last year, which raised £825k.
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