‘Investments of this nature carry risks to your capital. Please Invest Aware.’
Read about why we’re crowdfunding below but if you just can’t wait then jump straight into our Crowdcube page here.
We’re very excited to be announcing that for a short time anyone, anywhere, will have the opportunity to own a slice (or should that be a finger?) of Real Handful. Having spent the past 3 and a half years establishing our range, we’re now launching a crowdfunding campaign to raise the funds needed to establish Trail Mix snacking as a mainstay in the diets of UK consumers.
Why now? We hear you distantly cry. It’s a good question as the last few years have seen us steadily build momentum with our award- winning range of snacks. However, since the start of 2019 our distribution has exploded and we’re now available in >2,000 stores including Tesco, ASDA, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Ocado. For us there’s never been a clearer time to maximise our growth and deliver on our grand Trail Mix aims.
Our campaign on Crowdcube has more detail and the opportunity to ask any questions but we wanted to use our blog to explain just why we are raising funds and why we’ve gone down the route of ‘crowd-funding’.
So why are we raising funds?
Our initial mission at Real Handful to ‘make better snacks that improve lives’ resonates more than ever. In the UK, despite a lot of talk about the rise of healthier snacking the reality is that the top 10 most popular snacks are heavy on the empty carbs and low on the important nutrients our bodies need. The opportunity to improve our collective national health is huge, and we think Trail Mix could be a really important part of that journey. Just by moderating our consumption of chocolate as a snack we could remove 80,000 tonnes of saturated fat from UK diets each year whilst adding the natural protein, fibre and good fats our bodies need more of*
But this “building a food & drink brand that’s here to stay” lark doesn’t happen overnight. We’re up against bigger competitors, household names with huge budgets and bigger teams. While the big guys have their own agendas, one of our core values has always been to remain affordable, so we will continue to support our competitive pricing and invest in promotional plans which make it possible for everybody to try our range. That’s something we’re always going to stick to.
So to move forward we need to grow our team, build our brand and continue on our unruly mission and we’re seeking the funds need to make all this possible. We will be investing in marketing, new flavours, new products and new sales channels to spread the word and drive Real Handful to profit, so that we can be here to stay.
The great news is that we have already largely secured the funds needed to deliver this plan from investors who have been part of our journey to date, including our lead investor, Maven Capital. Maven work from our hometown of Manchester and have amazing experience helping smaller businesses like Real Handful successfully grow whilst simultaneously trusting the team to get on with running the business. From this starting point we’re now looking to smash our original fund-raising target as additional funds give us the opportunity to move faster with our plans.
Why are we raising funds on CrowdCube?
Using a crowd-funding platform like crowdcube seemed like a win-win, allowing us to seek these further funds whilst also sharing our mission with a wider audience. By opening up Real Handful, we hope to bring in a whole bunch of ambassadors who share our excitement around Trail Mix snacking, which is really at the core of what we’re all about. You don’t need to invest thousands of pounds to share our passion, crowd-funding allows you to be part of the journey from just £10. Check out what you can get for investing on the rewards page of our crowdcube campaign. The public can officially start investing from 2nd Jan and even if you’re not part of the fundraise, you can still join our ‘a snack for your story’ campaign, which we’ll share more details about in Jan 2020.
As well as being accessible to anyone we hope crowdcube can create an opportunity for us to start a conversation with a community of investors. Perhaps you have an idea for a funky new trail mix, your sister-in-law’s new coffee shop wouldn’t be complete without Real Handful or you think it’d be a crime for us to not sample at your awesome running show. We’re obsessed with new ideas here and our inboxes and ears are always open to suggestions. In addition, we are looking for willing participants to test our new products as they are in development so if your taste buds are sharper than John Torode’s drop us a line too!
Of course, none of this is worthwhile if Real Handful doesn’t represent a great investment opportunity. We think with our extensive experience in food & drink, our delicious range of snacks and most importantly all the progress we’ve made in the past 3 years, that there is a fantastic opportunity to create a company that’s not just important but also generates a great return for investors. The fruit & nut snacking category in the UK is worth >£1.1bn p/annum, we don’t need to a win a significant chunk of that market to build a really exciting business, and who says we have to stop at the UK – there’s a whole world of snackers out there!
All investments come with risks of course so do your research, don’t invest more than you can afford. You can find out more information on the EIS scheme which has some great incentives and protections here.
Oh and if your name happens to be Jeff Bezos or if you’re similarly whale-sized in your investments and want to learn more about our plans before considering a larger investment do drop joe@realhandful.com an email directly. We’re happy to answer any questions and there’s always a balance to how much information we can/should share on a public platform like crowdcube.
Stay Unruly,
Joe & Carly
DID WE MENTION CAPITAL AT RISK.
* The average UK snacker eats about 11kg of chocolate p/annum which equates to 119,000 tonnes of saturated fat across the UK every year coming from chocolate. If we could switch that consumption to Trail Mix that still contains 20% Dark Chocolate this would remove 80,000 tonnes of saturated fat and more than replace it with 96,000 tonnes of plant protein and fibre!