Soup brand Watmuff & Beckett will concentrate on developing new flavours and growing its distribution, after receiving £75,000 investment on the TV programme Dragons’ Den.
The brand received the money from Nick Jenkins, the founder of greeting cards website Moonpig, who will take a 20% stake in the business.
The investment comes less than a year after the brand, which makes ready-to-heat soups and risottos, doubled its listing with supermarket chain Asda for its newly rebranded product range.
Founders Michael Beckett and Andrew Watmuff, who presented to the ‘dragons’ on the BBC business show, will have the option to buy back half of Jenkins’ shares based on the company meeting profit and turnover projections.
Andrew Watmuff said: “We’re both really excited to be working with Nick. His talent for branding, marketing and brand strategy is going to be an invaluable tool in making Watmuff & Beckett everyone’s go-to soup and risotto range. We’ve already begun recipe development for our new flavours and are excited to grow our distribution. We’ve both put a lot of love into the brand and are really proud to see it growing – the experience in Dragon’s Den was nerve-racking, but a worthwhile one for sure.”
Andrew Watmuff (right) struck a deal with Moonpig founder Nick Jenkins.
Watmuff & Beckett’s soups and risottos focus on ‘ramped-up’ flavours, fresh ingredients and traceable produce, which it said would herald in ‘a new era of transparency in the ready meal sector’.
Touker Suleyman, the fashion magnate and another of the investors in the den, said that it was the best food he’d ever tasted as part of the programme.
And Nick Jenkins said: “From the outset in the Den, the other dragons and I were really impressed by the taste of Watmuff & Beckett’s soups and risottos. Andrew and Michael’s partnership and their respective experiences in retail and Michelin-level cookery proved to be a winning combination. With such a strong brand, heart-warming backstory, existing distribution and the potential to expand the range even further, investing in their business was one of my easier Den decisions.”
The range includes pea and fresh mint; sweet potato, carrot and ginger; and wild mushroom risotto.
Watmuff & Beckett products are available to buy from Asda, Tesco and Ocado.
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