Circular online grocer Weekly.Shop is seeking to raise £200,000 through crowdfunding.
The online subscription grocer – which delivers groceries in reusable containers, and collects, cleans, and refills the empties to be used again – said the funds would be “instrumental in accelerating our growth ambitions”.
“It will enable us to scale our CleanFill Hub and strengthen our logistics, invest in light automation – developed in-house – to boost our operational speed, and expand our product range, offering customers even more choice, all in one convenient place,” co-founder and CEO Paul Cooke told The Grocer.
The grocer offers a wide range of zero-waste products in fresh, ambient, home, and personal care, which are locally sourced where possible. To date it has made more than 800 deliveries, with a more than 56% average month-on-month growth in orders since February.
It estimates to have saved 12,000 items of packaging waste from the waste stream.
The startup has previously secured more than £350,000 in investment from the Low Carbon Innovation Fund, Turquoise Capital and angel investors, including key early and senior individuals from the likes of Graze, Harry’s and Hello Fresh. It’s also a recipient of a UK Research & Innovation grant to fight plastic waste.
Previous circular supermarket attempts have mostly sold only ambient products and used third-party couriers for deliveries, Cooke explained – a “very expensive way” of operating. In August last year, Ocado launched a pilot of an online reusable packaging scheme, claiming to be the first major supermarket to do so. The trial saw customers shop a small range of products including rice and pasta, which were delivered in a pre-filled reusable vessel, “developed specifically to deliver food cupboard staples and laundry products at scale”.
Once used or decanted, customers then return the empty vessel to the Ocado driver when they next deliver. In October, laundry detergent and fabric conditioner SKUs were added to the scheme.
Unlike others in the space, however, “we focus on changing customer behaviour – making zero-waste groceries affordable, easy, and seamless by offering a broad range of products and managing all reuse steps ourselves” Cooke said. All reuse processes are handled in-house, “retaining production margin and process IP”.
“By owning both the shopping platform and the whole reuse system, we’re in a unique position to drive this change effectively,” he added.
The startup was launched in 2023 by the founding team of Nestlé-acquired, DTC petfood retailer Tails.com.
“We are on a mission to create a new normal for groceries,” Cooke said, “building a fully zero-waste solution from the ground up, designed to sell a full basket of supermarket products.”
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