Spare Fruit

Idea

Introduction

Spare Fruit rescues beautifully fresh British fruit and transforms it into deliciously healthy award -winning fruit crisps.

Our vision is to become the Europe's leading sustainable snack brand available in supermarkets and independent retail outlets. Our aim is rescue thousands of tonnes of fresh fruit that would otherwise be wasted, and raise awareness of food waste amongst millions of consumers and thousands of businesses.

We gently slice whole fruits and slowly air-dry (never fry) them into crunchy slices of natural fruity goodness, without wasting a pip. Our fruit crisps are high fibre, low calorie with absolutely nothing added.

We support small British farms by purchasing their fresh produce deemed the wrong shape, size or colour and that would otherwise be wasted, and tackle and raise awareness of food waste in a delicious way.

We are currently listed with Selfridges, Planet Organic, Revital, Farm Drop and a host of independent cafes, health stores, deli’s, farm shops and garden centres.

Intended impact

Our aim over the next 5 years is to rescue over 5,000 tonnes of fresh surplus produce that would otherwise be wasted, and raising awareness of food waste among at least 100 million consumers and businesses.

One-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year.

The Healthy Snack Market is estimated to be worth £25 billion by 2025. The importance of local, sustainable food with British provenance is echoed in recent industry reports from Unilever, with 33% of consumers now preferring sustainable brands, and from Waitrose, with 80% caring about where their food comes from. A recent Global Food Trend Report by Mintel highlighted food waste innovation as a key emerging trend in 2017.

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Substantial accomplishments to date

Our brand values based on great taste, natural health and thoughtful production, has positioned Spare Fruit as an on-trend sustainable and healthy snack brand amongst consumer and trade press, rapidly propelling Spare Fruit into key sales channels.

Key listings such as Selfridges, Planet Organic, Google, Revital, online grocer Farmdrop and 17 specialist snack subscription boxes across Europe mean that sales have increased steadily over the past four months.

We are listed with major wholesalers Marigold, Diverse Fine Food and Bewleys. We are also in initial and advanced discussions with some of the largest food retailers and foodservice companies in the UK, with 2018 set to be a very exciting year.

We have featured in major female focused consumer titles such as Stylist, Natural Health and Balance Magazine as well as BBC Good Food, The Sunday Times Dish and Style Magazine, Delicious, The Daily Telegraph, Huffington Post, The Grocer, Food Navigator, The Fresh Produce Journal, Fruit Net and the Jamie Oliver magazine and by bloggers and influencers such as Cassandra (US), Tracy Kiss, Food Sauce and The Flexitarian.

We were recent winners of a Great Taste Gold Star Award (Apple Crisps), Food Talk Show Silver Award (Apple Crisps - Free from category) 2017 and shortlisted at Delicious Magazine Awards and Speciality Food Magazine New Producer Awards 2017.

We have a simple manufacturing process underpinned by a robust collaborative manufacturing agreement with our co-packer, plus an established relationship with Mid Kent Growers, a collective of independent fruit farms, who help us source our fresh surplus British apples and pears for us.

Monetisation strategy

We are building a diversified sales and marketing strategy, starting with existing premium independent and high street, trend-setter outlets that reinforce the reputation of Spare Fruit as on-trend, innovative and high quality. This will support entry into high-end supermarkets in year two, alongside food service distribution and increased distribution in existing and new export markets with a demand for British sustainable products such as Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden and France.

We intend to develop at least 11 new product lines, across new varieties, flavours and formats creating opportunities in a wider range of sales outlets, enhancing on-shelf presence and increasing rates of sale.

Use of proceeds

We intend to use the funds raised to execute our sales strategy by providing the critical staff, marketing and NPD resource to significantly increase our marketing and sales activity.

A new Sales and Account Manager and Marketing and Sales Manager have recently joined the team, and will will help drive our marketing, sales and NPD activity, while maintaining and growing existing accounts. This should free up Spare Fruit's Founder to lead on major new supermarket, food service and export accounts to drive growth.

Marketing activity will support the sales plan, through targeted consumer and trade campaigns such as in-store tastings and promotions, social media, online campaigns and trade shows.

Funds generated from this campaign and through product sales will be deployed as follows:

Sales and marketing, resource, materials and overheads: 50%
Stock purchase manufacture and distribution: 46%
New product development: 3%