Juice bar gets £2.5m funding boost
Smoothie chain Boost Juice Bars is to quadruple its UK footprint after a bank-backed capital fund snapped up a minority stake for £2.5 million.The Business Growth Fund (BGF), which was launched last year to help small and medium-sized businesses expand, has taken an undisclosed slice of the business set up by the founders of Millies Cookies.
Boost, which currently has 10 stores in major shopping centres, including the Trafford Centre in Manchester and London's Westfield, is set to create 30 new shops in three years.
The £2.5 billion BGF was launched by the UK's biggest banks and the Government last year to provide loans to small and medium-sized businesses, which have struggled to raise cash since the financial crisis.
Millies Cookies entrepreneurs Richard and Dawn O'Sullivan sold their biscuit business to Compass Group in June 2003 for £24 million, and launched their first Boost in the Trafford Centre in 2007. They won the rights to the brand in the UK and Ireland from its Australian founder Janine Allis.
Mr O'Sullivan said: "Having financed the business almost entirely from our own funds to this point, we decided to seek some outside growth capital to service the next phase of this expansion."
Mexican restaurant chain Barburrito, where Mr O'Sullivan is also non-executive chairman, was the first business in the north of England to receive BGF funding.
BGF north of England regional director Andy Gregory will join the Boost board. He said Boost was well placed to capitalise on a rapidly growing "healthier lifestyle" market.
The BGF, backed by Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered, provides long-term capital of between £2 million and £10 million, to businesses with turnovers of between £10 million and £100 million.
The UK Boost business, which makes the juices and smoothies in shopping centres, now has a turnover of £4 million.
Mr O'Sullivan said: "Having financed the business almost entirely from our own funds to this point, we decided to seek some outside growth capital to service the next phase of this expansion."
Mexican restaurant chain Barburrito, where Mr O'Sullivan is also non-executive chairman, was the first business in the north of England to receive BGF funding.
BGF north of England regional director Andy Gregory will join the Boost board. He said Boost was well placed to capitalise on a rapidly growing "healthier lifestyle" market.
The BGF, backed by Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered, provides long-term capital of between £2 million and £10 million, to businesses with turnovers of between £10 million and £100 million.
The UK Boost business, which makes the juices and smoothies in shopping centres, now has a turnover of £4 million.
© 2013 Press Association