With less than 24 hours until its equity crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube comes to an end, UK restaurant Filmore & Union has successfully secured over £600,000 thanks to nearly 160 investors.
The healthy eating restaurant was founded in 2011 by Adele Carnell and has opened seven locations in the north of England that serves pure, natural and wholesome food both to eat in and take out. The company believes in using whole foods that are packed with nutritional value, as opposed to sugar laden, processed products.
“The Filmore & Union concept is built upon the ever-growing health conscious consumer. Currently located across the North of England, Filmore & Union provides pure, natural and wholesome food. Here at Filmore & Union we believe in using whole foods that are packed with nutritional value, as opposed to sugar laden, processed products. Filmore & Union was founded on the idea that true health means making the best decisions for your body so you can live a healthier, happier lifestyle full of nutrient dense food to help your body support you.”
The new funds will be used for the following:
- Full brand trademarks
- Proven model of success which can be replicated nationwide
- A strong operational team is embedded within the company to support roll out
During a recent update, Carnell and her team shared details about the upcoming locations (opening next month) and introduced a new chef:
“As some of you may have already seen, we’ve just appointed a top London chef to come and work with us at our headquarters and Central Production Unit in Wetherby to develop our menus and Health To Go offerings! We’re so excited to welcome him to the team and can’t wait to taste his new Filmore dishes… our mouths are watering already!
“As well as acquiring a fantastic new chef, we’re continuing our expansion with two new restaurants opening next month. We’ve been spending the last few weeks working hard to get them fitted out Filmore style and, even better, they’re both due to open in August!
“The first site is our new Ilkley café, restaurant and bar, due to open on Monday 3rd August which will be able to seat 56 covers at any one time. Our second will be the biggest Filmore and Union yet! Opening on Station Parade in Harrogate, it will replace our current site on Station Square which is considerably smaller. The new Filmore Harrogate is due to open on Monday 31st August and will seat 130, including a large outdoor area for some alfresco dining.
“We have been inundated with CVs and applications for front of house and back of house staff at both sites and can confirm that our two new teams are currently undergoing our 6 week Filmore training programme – they’re raring to go!”
The company also revealed new rewards for investors:
“To celebrate the fact that we are now overfunded, we’re offering a NEW reward for anyone who invests £25k or more. Invest now and you will receive a Filmore & Union Black Card! This will get you free coffee anytime and free evening dinner for two people up to the value of £100.00 once a month to be used in all sites (valid for the life of the shareholding) AND shares in the company.”
Carnell added:
“I really just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all so much for your continued support and investments – this really does mean so much to us and we are overwhelmed by the response we’ve had, especially from our customers! It’s such an honour to see just how many of our customers have invested in us and want to be a part of Filmore’s future.
“We’re sending out around 30 business plans a day and the campaign is just snowballing! The majority of investments made are from our customer base, our largest being £150,000 which came from two financial directors of another company.
“Our investors so far have been largely made up of business professionals who have attended our Q&A evenings to ask lots of in-depth questions about the company. We love how everybody is starting to hear that we’re crowdfunding so if you know anyone who you think might be interested in what we’re doing, please help us spread the word!”
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