I was reading about a 23 year old entrepreneur in Cleethorpes that has appealed for “crowd funding” in order to help set up his
new sweet shop, Sugar Rush. For a donation of £5 to £100, the generous recipient
is duely rewarded with something in return. I assume in this case, something to
do with sweets! Matthew hopes to raise around £1,500 towards the set up of his
shop which he feels will be welcomed by the community.
It’s not the first time that a confectionery retailer has
turned to its customers for financial help. In 2010, Hotel Chocolat offered its
100,000 “Tasting Club” members FSA approved chocolate bonds at £2,000 each. The
result was an investment of £3.7m, with all of the investors receiving bi
monthly chocolate deliveries instead of dividends! Hotel Chocolate went on to
use the money to develop its manufacturing site in Cambridgeshire, creating 250
new jobs.
Maybe the idea of “crowd funding” is more viable than we
think. In these challenging retail times, perhaps your most loyal customers
would actually help you to develop and grow going forward by investing a modest
amount of money for some element of a regular reward? We’d be interested to
hear about any examples where this has worked.
Perhaps an existing confectionery retailer could set up an
investment scheme whereby the investor received a special discount card for all
of their future purchases? Or maybe it is as simple as a regular supply of
sweets and chocolate? Consumers can certainly become emotionally attached to
products and retailers within the confectionery market;
such is our love of sweets and chocolate! We are quick to “like” our favourite
sweet treats by way of their Facebook page so I wonder just how far some of us
might go to help them survive and thrive?
I wish Matthew Greenacre all the very best with his Sugar
Rush sweet shop. I hope that the good people of Cleethorpes support him and
subsequently enjoy the fun of a new sweet shop on their block.
