We’re getting more and more excited for Virgin Foodpreneur 2017. This year, the third year of Foodpreneur, we’ve partnered with intu to find the best food and drink businesses in the UK today, giving these businesses the opportunity to win invaluable prizes and mentoring.
We’re now thrilled to announce the judges who will be listening to and giving feedback to successful entrants.
Four finalists will pitch their business to:
Levi Roots, creator of Reggae Reggae Sauce
Levi needs no introduction – from appearing on Dragon’s Den to becoming a household name, as well as creating the hugely popular Reggae Reggae range he is the founder of restaurant Levi Roots Carribean Smokehouse.
Clean Eating Alice, food author and Instagram star
Clean Eating Alice gained a huge Instagram following as she documented her journey to become fitter and experiment with nutritious foods. Now she’s written an acclaimed cookbook sharing her favourite recipes and workouts, and works with major brands including Puma, Sweaty Betty and River Island.
Paul Lindley, founder of Ella’s Kitchen
Ella’s Kitchen revolutionised the children’s food market, providing healthy and convenient meals for kids, built on a social mission. It's now the UK's biggest-selling children's food brand.
Jim Cregan, co-founder of Jimmy’s Iced Coffee
Jimmy’s Iced Coffee is a leading UK coffee drink brand, stocked in supermarkets and outlets nationally. Jimmy’s also pretty good at rapping – watch the awesome video he did for us.
The winner will be awarded a six-week space at a major UK shopping destination, along with mentoring and advice from Virgin, intu, and the panel of judges – it’s an amazing opportunity to take your food or drink business to the next level.
Mei Shui, Managing Director Virgin StartUp added: “We’re into our third year of this fabulous competition and following the success of our previous winners I’m excited to see what’s on the horizon for this year’s entrants.
"A competition like this wouldn’t be what it is without a distinguished and experienced panel of judges; I’m pleased to welcome Alice, Levi, Paul and Jim to this year’s competition. I know they’re going to have a huge positive impact on the whole process.”
Levi Roots said: “I jumped at the chance to join the judging panel for intu and Virgin’s Foodpreneur as I share their passion for supporting new businesses and innovation. This is such a great opportunity to reach millions of new customers within a busy shopping centre environment so I’d encourage any budding food and drink entrepreneurs to find out how they could be part of this year’s competition.”
And David Fischel, who is intu Chief Executive, said: “Our expert panel of judges’ outstanding credentials across the food and drink industry will play an important part in the competition’s aim of finding and supporting the most creative and innovative new businesses. This includes the opportunity for them to reach millions of intu customers in our centres and online.
"We are delighted to be working with Virgin StartUp to provide such an opportunity and I’m personally looking forward to seeing the caliber of new ideas that this competition is bringing forward.”
Got an amazing food or drink business? Enter #VirginFoodpreneur here.
Need a little persuading? Here are some reasons to enter Virgin Foodpreneur from the 2015 winners.
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