SpiceBox

Idea

Introduction

SpiceBox is a local curry house, serving fresh spins on British-Indian curry house classics, which happen to be vegan.

We exist to inspire people to eat more plants, by using spice to bring out the natural awesomeness of vegetables.

Over the past 5 years, SpiceBox has grown from a street food stall to an award-winning local curry house and retail brand.

We have two curry houses in North East London and are raising investment to open our third curry house (in South East London) and support our retail products as they launch into nation-wide distribution.

It's our aim to become the UK's number one Indian food brand, with curry houses on high streets up and down the UK and retail products in supermarkets nation-wide.

Substantial accomplishments to date

2016:
- Grace flies back from Silicon Valley to pursue her dream of opening a curry house. She starts cooking in her home kitchen and turns her front door into an Indian takeaway.
- Grace is nominated as a Young British Foodie street food finalist and TimeOut vote SpiceBox as one of the top 10 street food business in London.

2017:
- We raise investment to develop the brand, make key hires and start the search for curry house #1.

2018:
- Picked by Deliveroo to join their first incubator program.
- Grace meets Alpesh (who has more hospitality experience than her) and convinces him to help her grow SpiceBox.
- They open a pop-up SpiceBox test kitchen in Walthamstow and become an instant local favourite.

2019:
- The first SpiceBox curry house opens in Walthamstow. Breakeven within 4 weeks and profitable within 6 weeks (based on site-level EBITDA).*
- Win best takeaway in East London at the London Curry Awards.

2020:
- Launch delivery 2 days before the lockdown.
- Onboard with Uber Eats and become one of their top performing restaurants in the area.
- Revenue continues to grow and we experience 3 months of record-breaking sales.*
- Launch first SpiceBox retail products: dhals and chutneys.

2021:
- Grace releases the SpiceBox recipe book (Penguin Random House).
- 2 of the UK's leading wholesalers list our retail products for nation-wide distribution.
- We open our 2nd curry house in Leytonstone and hit our forecasted targets in the first week. *

*Based on unaudited management accounts.

Monetisation strategy

We generate approximately 91% of our revenue through our curry houses which is divided between dine-in, takeaway and delivery. Pre-covid, dine-in made up c.80% of revenue. Since Covid, delivery and takeaway make up c.75% of revenue.*

Since Covid Dine-in is growing and we expect it to reach pre-pandemic levels in early 2022.

Delivery has opened up an exciting opportunity. We conduct deliveries on e-cargo bikes, through our partnership with Zedify. This keeps our delivery costs down whilst also helping the environment. It also means we can offer our re-usable tiffins for delivery. Members of The SpiceBox Tiffin Club pay a one-off £12.50 fee for a stainless-steel tiffin and order from our set tiffin menu. Their hot meal is delivered/picked up in the tiffin and when they next want to order, they simply swap out their used tiffin for a new one filled with delicous food. We now have over 1000 tiffins in circulation.

Retail is also an exciting new revenue steam for us, which we hope to grow in 2022.

*Based on unaudited management accounts.

Use of proceeds

We've got a fantastic product that our customers love, an amazing team and a clear vision of how we want to grow.

We have a 3rd curry house lined up in South East London which we are incredibly excited about. The majority of the money raised in this round will go towards the fit out and build of SpiceBox Curry House #3. This site will be our first outside of Waltham Forest, in an amazing location within a neighbourhood where we believe there is lots of demand and little supply (a well-proven formula for us).

It will also be our first site with outdoor seating which provides an exciting opportunity for summertime trading.

Our aim is to build 3 profitable curry houses in great locations, putting us in a fantastic position for further growth

Any remaining investment will be put towards growing the retail side of the business.