Food delivery start-up Graze is on course for £2m sales in its first year and is currently raising a new round of funding to enable further growth, The Grocer can reveal.

The online retailer has recorded higher than anticipated sales since it began trading in January and notched up sales of £145,000 in May alone.

Initial forecasts of a £1m turnover had been revised said co-founder, Ben Jones, who revealed that it was set to hit £2m by end of year. 

He said sales had risen by 10% each week since its launch and revealed that an investor was currently being sought to accelerate growth.

"We have caught the curiosity of the food industry and have received a few interesting phone calls and approaches from big players," Jones said. "Other companies appear to be intrigued how we can send ambient fruit at quality freshness through the post and have sent out 'fact-finder' people to investigate."
He predicted sales would be further driven through the introduction of a new product range due in the next six months to "make the business go 'bang'".

He admitted the rapid growth had been a "steep learning curve" and that the company had expanded its range of suppliers to keep up with demand.

"We found a spreadsheet order from December for a 23kg batch of pineapples. For the equivalent period we are now using 5.5 tons," Jones added.