Online health retailer Vitalife has turned to the crowd to raise funds for a new venture to reduce food waste.
It plans to raise £100,000 on crowdfunding website Crowdcube to fund a further rollout of the Love Health Hate Waste concept, which sells out-of-date branded products at heavily reduced prices.
Vitalife sells more than 10,000 lines of health products online, as well as supplying Holland & Barrett with its own brand of matcha green tea. MD Gavin Edley said he set up Love Health Hate Waste in May 2015 as a financial safety net for Vitalife and a solution to the growing waste problem in the UK. The business has now saved more than £750,000 worth of health foods, drinks and supplements from going to landfill.
“We were throwing products away that reached their best-before date and it seemed very wasteful considering we believed the products were still perfectly fit for consumption and legal to sell,” Edley said. “By selling products at up to 90% off rsp we are making healthy food and drink accessible to everyone.”
Love Health Hate Waste now has exclusive supply agreements with distributors, wholesalers and manufacturers to sell all their best-before date expired goods on its website and in its shop in Rotherham. Branded goods include Bart herbs, Cawston Press juice and Biona Organic coconut flour. “When we started we thought there might have a bit of a backlash from brands,” Edley added. “But 99.9% of brands we sell want to work with us.”
Love Health Hate Waste is already turning a profit on the back of £400,000 sales in 2015 - with projections to hit £600,000 this year and £1.2m in 2017.
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