Condiments startup Lucy’s Dressings is taking to the crowd to support the launch of its new range of vegan and flavoured mayonnaises.
The brand will hit Crowdcube on Monday (16 December) looking to raise a minimum of £125k in exchange of a 3.5% stake, for a valuation of £3.5m.
While in private mode, it has so far raised £44k from 16 investors.
The company is “100% open to overfund” and is also looking at private equity and VC funding to grow the brand, founder Lucy Mackenzie told The Grocer.
“The crowdfunding campaign was mostly a call to action for our community to get them excited about the new range,” she explained. “Clearly, £125k is not enough to ambitiously grow the brand, so we are also looking for much bigger investment.”
Lucy’s Dressings will use the cash raised to launch four new products in January: two vegan and two flavoured mayonnaises, for which it has already secured listings in Whole Foods Market and Ocado.
The brand’s existing 14-strong range, which already includes three vegan dressings and two vegan condiments, is available in Waitrose, Whole Foods, Morrisons and Ocado among others.
“Our existing vegan products have been a great success, our customers are becoming more interested in plant-based diets – or at least having a good proportion of their diet being vegetarian or vegan – therefore it made sense to expand our plant-based range,” Mackenzie said.
Further funding will be used to add to the company’s sales team and for working capital requirements.
Within the next five years, Lucy’s Dressings aims to snap up 3% of the UK’s dressings and mayonnaise market, currently worth £549m [Kantar 52 w/e May 2019].
In the 12 months to October 2019, the business achieved revenues of £415k with retail sales up 41% overall and 81% in Waitrose alone.
It now expects sales of £1.1m in 2020 and £2.6m in 2021.
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