Virgin Foodpreneur Festival 2015: Best Retail shortlist
Meet the shortlist of businesses in the ‘Best Retail’ category for Virgin StartUp Foodpreneur Festival 2015.
Each of these businesses will be invited to pitch to UKTI who will be selecting four winners to receive the chance to travel to the US to pitch to the buyers at Target Corporation, one of America’s leading chain stores for six months’ trial distribution and promotion. Target is an icon in the American retail landscape and has been trading for over a hundred years. In 2014 alone it generated over $72.5billion worth of sales.
This gamechanging opportunity will be given to four of the businesses below. We’ll be announcing the winners on 2nd October.
The elevator pitches in their own words for each of the shortlisted businesses:
Harry Brompton’s Iced Tea
Harry Brompton's is the world's first premium alcoholic Ice Tea. The business has grown rapidly from brewing small batches on the kitchen table in 2013 to selling in some of the finest outlets in the world. Our goal is to make Harry Brompton’s the world’s leading brand in premium ready to drink (RTD) tea.
Cuckoo Foods
We cater to Britain's adventurous palates, making premium on‐the‐go Bircher muesli pots in five innovative flavours; the perfect breakfast, snack or balanced dessert. First and foremost they're bang on taste, but they're also a source of protein and fibre and are sweetened only with fruit sugars making the perfect on‐the‐go solution for busy people.
A multi‐award winning healthy & tasty world food brand for kids and grown‐ups! Presented as multi‐compartment, two courses, authentic and home cooked style ready meal, expertly crafted and bursting with flavour with a unique blend of spices.
Aduna
Aduna is an Africa‐inspired health & beauty brand and social business. Our mission is to create demand for under‐utilised natural products from small‐scale producers in rural Africa – starting with the superfoods baobab and moringa, which we sell as superfood powders and energy bars.
Caulirice
Cauli Rice is the only long life, ready to heat version of the global health food phenomenon cauliflower rice ‐ with 75% fewer calories than white rice and counts towards one of your 5 a day. Our product is protected by a global patent.
T-Sticks of London
T‐Sticks of London are on a mission to stir up the tea market by introducing an alternative to the messy bag, taking versatility to the next level and designed to bring the cool back in to tea. The stick acts as a stirrer and strainer all in one, making them very portable and creating less washing up for you ‐ no spoon needed!
Double Dutch
Double Dutch offers an innovative range of premium soft drinks that are specifically developed to drink with higher quality gins, vodkas and tequilas.
Improper Butter
Improper Butter is a range of garlic and herb cooking butters that melt a pop of flavour through all your favourite dishes. Combining only the purest, grass‐fed Irish butter with the freshest herbs and ingredients, Improper Butter makes meal times improperly delicious.
JimJams
JimJams is a new fun and
exciting brand that provides a full range of
healthier spreads, that will inject new life in
a stagnant spread category. The award
winning Chocolate spreads contain 83%
less sugar than any other Chocolate
Spreads on the market.
Mallow and Marsh
Mallow and Marsh make 100% natural, premium confectionery that is available in smaller, impulse pack sizes for one.
Livia’s Kitchen
Livia’s Kitchen provides the option for people to indulge and satisfy their sweet cravings in a healthier way by creating desserts and sweet treats with nutritional twists.
The African Chef
A revolutionary, exciting, award winning brand that combines local ingredients with highly nutritious, sustainable, African tree foods. Helping to improve nutrition, health, rehabilitate degraded land, supporting rural communities, endangered animals and contributing to the reduction of climate change
Claudi & Fin
Claudi & Fin, the UK's first Greek style frozen yoghurt lolly, entered the marketplace with a splash in May
2014 when we launched straight into 275 Sainsbury's stores.
Aimed at the growing number of families seeking a healthier alternative to ice cream, Claudi & Fin is the UK's fastest
growing lolly brand with stockists including 450 Sainsbury's
stores, 180 Waitrose stores, Ocado, 60 Budgen's, 450 Tesco's stores from 2016 as well as Supervalu an d Dunnes in the Republic of Ireland.
Forest Gin
An exceptional artisan Gin in the most beautiful bottle. The Gin is made in tiny batches of 75 bottles at a time, using predominantly organic and forage d ingredients. It comes presented in a unique and beautiful Stoneware bottle with a papercut design hand‐screenprinted onto each one.
Little Moons
We are British producers of luxury mochi desserts and make everything by hand in London. Mochi is Japanese cult confectionery that is made from steamed and pounded rice flour and we are launching it to British retailers. We produce a range of frozen mochi ice cream, which provides consumers with a completely new dessert and an innovative way to enjoy gelato.
Mara Seaweed
We produce delicious seaweeds in a more accessible form ‐ similar to a herb ‐ making it easier to sprinkle on food and into cooking.
Pip & Nut
Pip & Nut is an all natural nut butter brand that's dedicated to putting the nut back into nut‐trition.