A Fulham entrepreneur behind one of the country's fastest growing firms is celebrating this week after landing a six-figure investment.
John Heseltine, 36, who lives in Fulham, and business partner Martin Hall have secured a £600,000 cash injection from Clydesdale Bank for their juice brand Cherrygood.
The label defied a downturn in the juice and smoothie market and had a turnover of £1.2million pounds in this, its first year of trading, and the pair hope the investment can send its value soaring into the hundreds of millions.
They had previously failed to attract funding from other banks and now hope to make their brand multinational, achieving similar success to Ocean Spray, the cranberry juice product, which is also based on a single fruit.
Domestically, Cherrygood is already stocked in all the major supermarkets but they want to increase UK sales to more than £10million within the next five years.
Mr Heseltine, who created the brand having lived in America's 'cherry belt' of Michigan, said: “We are delighted that we have at last found a bank which is willing to form a genuine partnership with Cherrygood.
"We found it incredible that many of the other high street banks were unwilling to back a profitable and growing business which had quickly achieved listings in all of the major supermarkets. We believe their loss is very much Clydesdale’s gain – it is just a shame that we have had to spend so much of this year looking for a banking partner that believed in our product and our aggressive plans for growth both within the UK and worldwide."
Paul Debney, business partner at Clydesdale Bank, said: “It was immediately obvious they knew the market, had a clear and shared vision, robust business plan and real drive and determination to become a major player in the juice drink market. They have ambitious plans and 2011 will see them bring a number of new products to market and I’m sure will see them achieve significant growth.”
