Confectioner's £125,000 crowdfunding drive

High-end nougat, toffee and butterscotch start-up Champion Reeves launched a pitch for £125,000, in exchange for 12.5 per cent of the equity of the business, on crowdfunding site CrowdCube.

Over the weekend one backer staked around £115,000 on the business succeeding, taking it past its target within days of the pitch's launch.

Now it is sell additional equity above the original offer, in the hope of raising more money which will be used to set up a full-time factory in Shrewsbury.

That will help it meet demand which is already flooding in from big names around the country including Harrods and Selfridges, who have been contacted by the company's distributor and who are ordering products from the Shropshire business.

Managing director Jacqueline Champion is also visiting Japan next month in a bid to drum up further demand for the luxury sweets in the world's third-largest economy.

Production and development director Andrew Reeves said: "People on CrowdCube were saying that ours is one of the few financial plans that make sense. We've got our numbers right as far as we can.

"A big investor has looked at what we've done, and what we are trying to do, and decided to come in, they like what we're doing. They are happy to commit funding to it, and think it has legs."

The products are already stocked by The Royal Collection – which has shops at royal palaces including Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Holyrood, and confectionery distributor The House of Sarunds.

The start-up business was designed to follow in the footsteps of the widely-appreciated top-end butterscotch brand Callard and Bowser, whose toffees went out of production several years ago.

The company now owns the business name Callard & Bowser, although not the trademark, and is hoping to release the pent-up demand for the classy confectionery.

The move into confectionery was already one being considered by the pair, but it was hastened by a need to diversify business because its previous brand – Isis Adventures – was facing a struggle in the midst of the ongoing Isis uprising in the Middle East.

Butterscotch

Mr Reeves, who developed the recipes himself, added: "It was a big shame the Callard and Bowser butterscotch ever went, and a lot of people wish it was still here.

"Once we get going, and I think we have a strong marketplace, I hope that people will start to see us as a new Callard & Bowser."

The company has placed a cap on the equity it will sell in the business, which has been valued at £1 million in total, with an eye on future sales.

However, it is continuing its crowdfunding campaign for the time being.