The Coffee House has secured a £4m investment from AJ Bell founder Andy Bell and his retired business partner Fergus Lyons to accelerate the brand’s growth.

The Northwest-based coffee shop operator, founded by brothers Chris and Stephen Shelmerdine in 2011, aims to become the leading operator in the region.

The Coffee House currently operates 22 outlets across the Northwest, with new openings accelerated over the past 12 months. It expects to grow its estate to over 30 outlets in the next 12 months.

The investment will support and accelerate growth as well as the development of the company’s bespoke food production and coffee roasting facility in Warrington to enable it to support more than 80 sites in the future.

The co-founders, Chris and Stephen Shelmerdine, retain a controlling share of The Coffee House and remain managing director and development director, respectively.

Upon concluding the deal, the company has appointed David Evans as chair, formally CEO of Arriva PLC’s mainland Europe operations and an early investor in The Coffee House.

Evans will support and advise the brothers as they continue to develop the management team.

Chris Shelmerdine, MD, said: “This investment is a massive milestone for our business as it provides us with the means to enhance our operational capabilities and, crucially, the resources to develop our management teams to support success far into the future. Recently, our focus has been on creating the infrastructure to support a growing coffee chain; it is exciting to be entering a new stage of growth where we continue to expand the team that will take us into the future.

“We are very grateful to have access to Andy and Fergus’s expertise. It perfectly complements our existing shareholder group, and we look forward to collectively continuing on the journey.”

Andy Bell, CEO & founder of AJ Bell, said: “Great businesses need great products and great people. The Coffee House has both. Chris and Stephen are dynamic and have created a great business in an exciting market making this one of my easier investment decisions.”