We create incredible snack brands. Launching our fourth: Create a Crisp.
Business overview
Location | London, United Kingdom |
---|---|
Social media | |
Website | createacrisp.com |
Sectors | Food & Beverage Non-Digital Mixed B2B/B2C |
Company number | 08647804 |
Incorporation date | 13 Aug 2013 |
Idea
Introduction
We believe we are experts in the snack industry and what we are offering is an investment opportunity in not just one, not two, not even three, but FOUR incredible snack brands. Each of which enables us to target a different sector of the >£2bn UK snack market.
Whilst our number one priority is to grow our existing brands, we are constantly on the look out for new trends and thinking about new ideas; an investment in this company is not only an investment in our existing brand portfolio but also in our future brands and NPD. Since our first Seedrs round, we have added 2 new brands and when appropriate we intend to add more to supplement our portfolio and support our goal to become a major player in the savoury snack market.
Our diversified portfolio of four distinct brands not only allows us to attack multiple areas of the FMCG market, but also means the business is not reliant on simply one brand or product. Whilst helping to shield us from rapidly changing consumer buying habits and trends, this simultaneously means we are better placed, we believe, than other businesses in our sector to capitalise on them.
Intended impact
Our first three brands were Awfully Posh, The London Crisp Co. and The London Popcorn Co., however the detail in this campaign is focused on our newest brand - Create a Crisp.
We believe Create a Crisp is the most innovative new product to hit the savoury snack sector for many years.
The product is a multipack; with 5 bags of unseasoned, reduced fat, crinkle cut crisps. What makes it special, is that we also include 10 different seasoning sachets, allowing the consumer to not only to control the amount of flavouring they apply to their bag of crisps, but also to - quite literally - create their own flavour of crisps by combining sachets. There are hundreds of different flavour combinations!
Unsalted crisps with little blue sachets of salt which the consumer can sprinkle over their crisps have been around for decades. Create a Crisp takes the concept of seasoning your own crisps to another level.
You can watch the video from our previous round here:
Substantial accomplishments to date
Create a Crisp:
◆ Despite only launching in Q4 2017, the brand has already secured listings in both Waitrose and Tesco. It launched into 200 Waitrose stores, and into Tesco in early 2018.
◆ A further launch on Ocado is planned for March 2018, and we are in conversations with other major supermarkets.
◆ Create a Crisp is not only a concept that we believe is completely unique and innovative - and has rapidly achieved listings in two major supermarkets - but one that also taps into consumers' increasing demand for personalisation and the ability to control the amount of seasoning applied to their snacks.
The London Crisp Co.:
◆ Now an established crisp brand with major listings and significant distribution across the UK, Europe and Middle East.
The London Popcorn Co.:
◆ Despite only launching last year, this brand - a sister brand to The London Crisp Co. - has already secured distribution, especially in the Contract Catering market.
Awfully Posh:
◆ Now a popular and well-known pork snack on the market with national distribution in major supermarkets, farm shops and online.
Monetisation strategy
We aim to implement a very simple, low overhead, and lean capital business model. Rather than needlessly hire administrative and accounting staff, we have partnered with an experienced third party to handle our 'back office' in its entirety.
This third party holds our stock, processes the orders, and does the invoicing and cash collection.
This cost-effective solution saves us the overheads of hiring staff, the worries and cash flow difficulties that come with running a complex debtor book, and most importantly allows the team to concentrate on growing our brands rapidly and generating a brilliant pipeline of new products.
Use of proceeds
To date, we have maintained a small, close-knit team concentrated on rapidly growing our brands. Having just added our fourth brand - Create a Crisp - to our already well diversified portfolio of savoury snacks, we now feel the time is right to grow our sales team in order to continue to drive the business forward and to continue to generate new business and listings.
As such, we intend to use some of the investment proceeds to hire a new National Account Manager to look after the Food Service and Independent Sector.
The remainder of the proceeds will be used to create a £50k marketing pot with the intention of driving awareness - and trial - of our entire range of products, with emphasis on our new Create a Crisp brand; as an exciting new concept, we need to educate the consumer on the benefits and USPs to encourage them to pick the product off the shelf.
Market
Target market
We believe everyone loves a great snack. So ultimately, our target market is anyone who likes their food to taste great, but wants it made properly. Our research revealed that more and more consumers really care about the ingredients that go into food, and want to avoid horrible artificial things like MSG (which is why we never use it in any of our products).
There is little doubt that, despite appeals for healthier lifestyles, the UK has an insatiable appetite for savoury snacks. However, we believe that you do not need to compromise on the ingredients and production processes to deliver great tasting snacks.
Our key target demographic is 18-40 ABC consumers, who care about what they eat, but still want it to taste great. We see them as part of the Highly Affluent, Wealth Achievers and Urban Prosperity groups. Our brands are cool and fun and are targeted at young professionals and families who feel the same way.
Characteristics of target market
The crisps and snack market in the UK is not just growing, but also seeing unprecedented levels of M&A activity. Tyrrell's, a manufacturer of a range of snacks including crisps and popcorn, was acquired by an American popcorn manufacturer for £300m in 2016. Metcalfe's Skinny sold their popcorn and healthy snack business to Kettle Chips in January 2016, and popcorn brand Propercorn sold a minority stake that values the business at £25m in 2016.
According to The Grocer magazine, in 2014 sales of crisps, nuts and snacks grew 6.1% to £2.2bn driven by increased prices (up 3.6%) and higher purchase frequency (up 3.5%). In 2015, the market grew by a further 2.1% to £2.3bn and the sharing bag crisp market grew 4.5% to reach £579m. In 2017 the bagged snacks category added an extra £66.6m, a 2.4% rise on volumes up 1%.
In summary, the savoury snack market is in good health, and with our great combination of brands we will continue to aggressively attack it and attempt to grow market share.
Marketing strategy
Our primary routes to market are as follows:
► 1. Multiple retail:
Three years ago, we dealt with only Waitrose and Ocado as far as major supermarket relationships go. We now deal with Waitrose, Ocado, Amazon, ASDA and Tesco, and are in very late stage talks with Morrison's and Sainsbury's.
► 2. On-trade:
After a successful trial with Fuller's brewery, since our last fundraise our entire crisp range is stocked in their entire London estate of pubs and hotels.
► 3. Independent trade:
Q1 2018 is significantly increased on the same period for 2017 through our distribution among independent cafes, delis, and coffee shops.
► 4. Travel Sector:
We have developed a 20g single serve bag of crisps for the travel and have a strong relationship with British Airways's supplier, who have flown our Sea Salt crisps with great success.
►5. Export:
In 2018 and 2019 we intend to focus much more strongly on export opportunities for all of our brands.
Competition strategy
In terms of our competition strategy for Create a Crisp, we intend to leverage strongly the fact that we have created what we see as a completely unique piece of innovation in the multipack crisp category; a strategy that has already yielded great results.
We are the only product and brand to our knowledge that allows consumers to customise and create their own flavours, and we are attempting to inject an element of fun into the crisp category that has not been seen before.
By launching with just one SKU (product line), we believe that we are in a better position to secure listings with major supermarkets because we don't require the amount of shelf space that would be necessary if we were launching a range of 3 or 4 products.
Despite our constant desire to seek out and fill gaps in the snack market, by ensuring all of our brands are within the same broad category, and with the low-overhead business model we have adopted, we are confident in our ability to continue to drive forward and grow all four of our brands simultaneously.
Open an account to get access to the team members of Create a Crisp
Already have an account? Log in
To comply with financial regulations, we can only show full campaign details to registered users.
Only shareholders can access this page
If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.
Buy sharesOnly shareholders can access this page
If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.
Buy sharesOnly shareholders can access this page
If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.
Buy sharesOnly shareholders can access this page
If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.
Buy shares