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Baby boomer meals specialist Parsley Box has raised £5.9m through a new share placing to boost growth, with a further £1.1m targeted through an open offer.

The group placed 29,618,000 shares at 20p per share, with directors contributing £4.2m to the fundraising.

The fundraising shares represent 41.2% of the enlarged issued ordinary share capital of the company (excluding any shares allotted in the £1.1m open offer ) and represented a premium of 11.1% to the closing price of 18p on 9 March 2022.

Is it expected the fundraising and open offer, which will consist of issuing up to 5,513,464 additional shares raising £1.1m, will complete on or around the 31 March 2022.

The group will use the new funds to targeted new customer acquisition, product development for food and improve its online offer through a customer journey tailored to its demographic and a membership program to start a customer community.

It will also be used to strengthen the balance sheet and general working capital to support a four-year-old scale up business.

The fundraising comes after a collapse in the group’s share price following two profits warning last year on slowing sales growth due to Covid and supply chain issues.

Parsley Box floated at 200p in March 2021 and had lost 90% of its value before the fundraising.

Directors participating in the fundraise included non exec chairman Chris van der Kuyl, who invested a further £1.9m and CEO Kevin Dorren, who invested £1.1m.

The fundraising boosted the group’s share price, which jumped 16.7% yesterday to 21p.

Morning update

UK GDP bounced back in January 2022, increasing by 0.8% after falling by 0.2% in December 2021, when the Omicron variant of the coronavirus and Plan B restrictions hit economic growth.

GDP is now 0.8% above its pre-coronavirus level of February 2020, according to the Office of National Statistics.

All sectors grew in January 2022, with services up 0.8%, production up 0.7% and construction up by 1.1%.

Output in consumer-facing services grew by 1.7% in the month, mainly driven by a 6.8% increase in food and beverage activities, while all other services also saw growth on the month, by 0.6%.

Services is now 1.3% above its pre-coronavirus pandemic level, while construction is 1.4% above and production is 2.0% below. Within services, consumer-facing services are now 6.8% below their pre-coronavirus levels, while all other services are 3.4% above.

On the markets this morning, the FTSE 100 is up 0.8% to 7,154.5pts.

Early risers include Ocado, up 4.6% to 1,236.5p, Greggs, up 3.8% to 2,315.7p and SSP Group, up 2.1% to 238.7p.

Fallers include McColl’s, down 10.3% to 1.96p, Diageo, down 1.6% to 3,320p and Deliveroo, down 1.6% to 112.2p.

Yesterday in the City

The FTSE 100 ended the day down 7,099.1pts.

Marks & Spencer ended the day flat at 158.45p after announcing the succession plan for CEO Steve Rowe in the afternoon.

Parsley Box jumped 16.7% to 21p on news of its funraising and the cash injection from directors.

Wynnstay Group was up 5.8% to 545p as it announced the acquisition of poultry feeds player Humphrey Feeds.

But is was again a largely negative day for consumer stocks.

Fallers included Just Eat Takeaway.com, down 8.5% to 2,296.5p, McColl’s, down 6.4% to 2.18p, THG, down 5.3% to 85.1p, Bakkavor, down 5.2% to 108.6p, McBride, down 5% to 44.7p, B&M European Value Retail, down 4.8% to 545p, Diageo, down 4.7% to 3,375p, Hotel Chocolat, down 4.7% to 405p, Deliveroo, down 4.4% to 114p and FeverTree, down 3.9% to 1,513p.

The day’s few risers included Premier Foods, up 4.2% to 105.4p, Nichols, up 1.7% to 1,382.5p and British American Tobacco, up 1.2% to 3,100p.

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