Biff’s has secured a £250,000 loan from the Greater London Investment Fund (GLIF), backed by the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS). The money will be used to recruit new staff across sales, marketing and product development, and to support its Biff’s Plant Shack launch in major UK retailers.
Biff’s has created an innovative range of street food inspired vegan products using jackfruit as its primary ingredient. Its flagship product is the world’s first commercially available vegan wing with a sugarcane “bone”, and the Biff’s Plant Shack range also includes burgers, loaded fries and sauces.
Initially starting out as a street food vendor, early success enabled an increase in the number of stalls followed by expansion into hospitality events. Since then, Biff’s branded products have gone on to appear on the menus of well-known foodservice providers across the country, including Frankie & Benny’s restaurant chain and Greene King pubs, and are also available via Deliveroo and Uber Eats through their delivery-only kitchens.
Biff Bloom-Burrows, Co-founder of Biff’s, said: “As we recover from the impact of the pandemic, Biff’s Kitchen is in a prime position to take advantage of current growth in the vegan market. More and more consumers are looking to plant-based alternatives, driven by the health and environmental benefits. This GLIF loan will enable us to increase our brand awareness, promoting sales across our foodservice distributors as well as supporting our recent launch into Waitrose.”
The Biff’s Plant Shack Waitrose launch sees several of its products available in around 300 stores across the country and the company is now looking to supply further supermarkets in the future. With the UK plant-based market seeing huge growth and currently worth over £3billion, this puts the company in a strong position to capitalise and expand.
Marco Cerrone, Investment Manager for The FSE Group, which manages the £55 million GLIF debt fund on behalf of Funding London, commented: “Chris and his team have created a unique street food themed focus with growing brand awareness and an increasing number of successful foodservice partnerships. This positions the company well for their future expansion into UK supermarkets and we are excited to be working with them to realise this.”
Maggie Rodriguez-Piza, CEO at Funding London added: “With an ever-increasing awareness across all generations of the impact our food choices have on the environment, we believe Biff’s Kitchen is well positioned to take advantage of the expanding vegan products market. We are delighted to provide the capital required for the team’s expansion and we are looking forward to support them in their growth ambitions.”
GLIF is a £100m initiative to help address the SME finance gap in Greater London, promoting economic growth through enterprise and an inclusive and sustainable economy. £55m of debt funding is available, via loans between £100,000 and £1m, to early-stage and established SMEs looking to scale-up and realise their growth ambitions. GLIF is financed through the European Investment Bank (EIB), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), London Waste & Recycling Board (LWARB) and Funding London’s Legacies.