Hemp food business Braham & Murray is seeking up to £1.5m in a fundraising round to fuel the continuing rapid growth of its Good Hemp milk brand in the dairy alternative market.
Founders Henry Braham and Glynis Murray, a successful director of photography and film producer respectively who have worked on a number of Hollywood films including Nanny McPhee, launched the business in 2005. Their products are now stocked in Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, Ocado, Waitrose, Booths and Holland & Barrett.
The husband-and-wife team, who produce oils, milk and protein powder extracted from hemp seeds on their Devon farm, plan to use the money for NPD to add to the original, unsweetened and coconut milk variants, as well as moving away from on-the-shelf promotional activity and investing in marketing for the brand, including a TV campaign.
Good Hemp is backed by a group of unnamed investors, who are “food and drink industry veterans” currently involved in fmcg companies, and its board includes former Waitrose MD Steven Esom, who has advised the business in a non-executive role for the past three years.
The latest fundraising is the second in recent years, with the previous round generating £1.5m to build a specialist milk production plant which has resulted in the dairy alternative product becoming the major part of the business. Milk retail sales are now worth £2m, up 40% on 2014, in the £138m dairy alternatives market [Kantar 52 w/e 13 September 2015], with projections to grow another 40-50% next year. The total brand is worth £3m including the oil and protein powder.
Murray said the launch of the milk 18 months ago represented a big step from ambient to chilled. She added: “This is British ingenuity and innovation at its best. The production of milk from hemp is completely unique and no one else is doing it. And that is why there is so much interest from investors.” “We’re growing so quickly we need more capital to grow the SKUs - and the potential there is endless.
“Alpro has forged the way and raised awareness for consumers of dairy alternatives and we can now capitalise on that awareness.”
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