Pollen + Grace

Idea

Introduction

Hi, we are Pollen + Grace.

We create innovative, healthy ready meals and snacks. We challenge the traditional marketplace by creating 100% natural, accessibly priced, genuinely delicious meals that just so happen to be vegan, as well as gluten, wheat and dairy free.

Born in our home kitchen in 2015, we have grown from a niche lunch delivery service to one of the market leading Food-To-Go brands. Today, our products can be found on the shelves of retailers like Whole Foods and WHSmith; our meals are available nationwide through Ocado and since 2018, our branded products are stocked in offices such as Google, HSBC and Deloitte through Compass Group.

With our January sales increasing by 43% in 2019, we aim to turn a profit by the end of the year. Staying true to our original mission to become the most trusted healthy food brand in the UK and beyond, our range will soon be available on the shelves of some of the UK’s largest retailers, nationwide.

And we would like YOU to join our journey.

Intended impact

We entered the market right at the beginning of the current food revolution and we are just at the beginning of our journey.

The food-to-go market is valued at £20.7bn and it is set to grow by 35% by 2021. With more than half of UK adults now adopting vegan buying behaviour, the demand for meat-free food increased by 987% in 2017.

Supplying to retail, high street and contract catering, our multi-channel strategy capitalises on the changing landscape of the food industry.

To us nutrition is more than the traditional macros. Each product has been carefully designed by our in-house nutritionist to deliver a highly complex meal with a high content of vitamins and minerals. We bring new flavours and superfoods to people's daily diets, making healthy food accessible, and above all, enjoyable!

By championing a new approach to nutrition and food, we believe we are perfectly positioned to become a household name, following the footsteps of other great pioneers such as Innocent, Propercorn and Graze.

Substantial accomplishments to date

2015
-Successfully launched a healthy food brand, self funded.
-Organically grew a loyal community of social followers.
-Moved from our home kitchen to an army barrack kitchen in Clapham.
-Created a retail range of 12 products and listed them all with our first retail client, Planet Organic.

2016
-Secured listings with Daylesford Organic, Selfridges, Harrods and Psycle.
-Successfully ran a pop-up food-to-go store in Old Street tube station.
- 10x revenue growth to £360,000.*

2017
-Moved to our very own production unit in Vauxhall.
-Obtained SALSA food safety accreditation, allowing us to work with large national retailers and contract caterers.
-Started working with Wholefoods, As Nature Intended and Sourced Market and grew our annual revenue to £480,000*.

2018
-Launched on Ocado with 5 products and quickly became one of the top selling vegan ready meals on the site. In Q4 we listed 7 additional products.
-Started working with Compass Group, supplying our branded range to Google in April 2018 and added 15 new locations by the end of the year.
-Launched a new range of ambient snacks and secured a listing with WHSmith.
-Won a Great Taste Award for one of our long standing products, the Beetroot Quinoa + Tahini Abundance Box.
-Grew revenue by more than 50% to £750,000 and secured supply deals with Tesco and Co-op (due to launch in Q2 2019).
-Grew our social audience to over 23,000 loyal, engaged followers.

*Based on unaudited management accounts

Monetisation strategy

Since day one, our primary focus has been on creating a brand name that is synonymous with health and wellness.

Today, we have a multi-channel distribution strategy focusing on:

-Major + Independent Retail
-Contract Catering - includes B&I, education, health + travel
-High Street
-Distributors
-Export (coming soon).

We design and make all our products in-house, using our knowledge of working with speciality ingredients to create a unique, ever-evolving range that simply cannot be copied. Our 18 products cover four meal times, allowing us to reach the same customer for multiple purchases and helping us grow revenue with existing clients by listing a wider range of lines.

Apart from revenue growth, our key focus lies on improving our gross margin. Currently achieving a 47% gross margin after all raw ingredients and delivery, it is our key target to improve this by 5-6% by the end of 2019, which we believe is achievable through economies of scale as we grow volumes to meet demand.

Use of proceeds

This is a super exciting time to get involved in Pollen + Grace and join the healthy food revolution. We have established our brand, built an amazing team and developed excellent relationships with our suppliers and customers - all of which gives us a fantastic platform for growth.

The proceeds from this raise will be used to accelerate our sales and marketing reach through the following plans:.

-Working capital for launching our products into major UK retailers i.e increased stock holding, marketing support and launch promos.
-Investment into our supply chain to ensure that we remain a reliable supplier to our growing number of customers.
-Investment into technology to drive value creation and build efficiencies.
-Expanding our sales and marketing team.
-Investment into brand building through experiential marketing, including events, trade shows and pop-ups.
-Investment into New Product Development - new ranges and expansion of existing lines.
-Investment into more eco-friendly packaging.

Please note, the company has outstanding loans of an aggregate £86,398. This includes a Director's loan of £4,206; a bank loan of £71,486 with a 3% interest rate; and start up loans of £10,727 with a 6% interest rate. None of the funds raised will be used to repay these loans.