A food entrepreneur is hoping to take his sauces business to the next level after becoming the first official resident at a new Suffolk ‘start-up lab’.
Jim Fennell, creator of the condiment brand Salubrious Sauce Co, has been selected to be part of an accelerator programme run by Shout About Suffolk, through which promising start-ups gain investment and mentoring support.
Since committing full time to his idea for Salubrious in 2017, Jim has already created a product range of four core sauce products, including the multiple award-winning Original British Breakfast Sauce, the Chip Shop Curry Sauce and Sunday Lunch Horseradish.
MORE - Companies urged to back Suffolk’s new business talent with £4,800 bursaryHe will be working with Shout About Suffolk’s three founders over the coming 12 months, to increase his product range, and scale the business up.
Paddy Bishopp, previously of Suffolk coffee brand Paddy & Scott’s, who launched Shout About Suffolk with Toby Durrant and Richard Croft earlier this year, will be leading his mentoring support.
Jim said he was “delighted”, and looking forward to working with the team to take Salubrious to the next level.
“The brand has already achieved a great deal of success in its early life, including some great consumer sales, distribution via the Ocado network, and a really strong relationship with a restaurant pub chain, where we produce a sauce for them.
“As a lab resident, I’ll now be able to call on a huge wealth of experience and expertise to take me through an important new phase in my ambitious plans for the business.”
Paddy, who has also agreed to become a board member for the food brand, said: “Jim is the perfect example of the kind of entrepreneur we’re looking to support through the Shout About Suffolk model.
“He’s got his business to an initial point, and now he wants to embrace our mentoring and support to ensure that he doesn’t miss out on the opportunities which are out there for his brand.”
Jim is set to use a new Suffolk-based production kitchen, which is currently being purpose built with the support of Shout About Suffolk.
As well as Lab places, social enterprise Shout About Suffolk, at Riduna Park, Melton, Woodbridge, is also housing 20 entrepreneurs in its designated ‘Hub’, each of which will be ‘paid for’ by companies or individuals.
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