Yorkshire Meatball Co., the fledgling Harrogate-based meatball concept, is seeking investment to accelerate the roll-out of its restaurant concept to Leeds and York while also considering franchising into wet-led pubs and overseas, co-founders David and Gareth Atkinson told M&C Report.
The company is celebrating its first anniversary in the Yorkshire market town during which time it has generated turnover in excess of £330,000 and served more than 22,000 customers.
Gareth, the head of branding and co-founder of the restaurant with his father David said: “We are at a stage now that we have given the model a year and proved it can work in Harrogate, which is quite a challenging location because the population is only 7,000 but there are over 300 places to eat.
“We are looking to attract investment to branch out in cities close to us – Leeds and York in particular – and we certainly have plans to look further afield as well.”
David Atkinson said there is no formal target for investment but they are interested in securing debt for equity.
“One can achieve quite a bit with investment of half a million in a prime city centre and go from there, or with a couple of million we could roll out a few much more quickly.”
The group is looking for investors with industry experience who can lend expertise as well as financial backing to support and expand the potential in the brand.
Gareth said early conversations have begun with restaurant groups in London to potentially find a master franchisee for the capital.
The franchising model could also be applied to bring a stripped back version of the Yorkshire Meatball Co. to wet-led pubs.
The company is speaking with a local pub about launching a test concept into the pub with Yorkshire Meatball Co. providing recipes, support, branding and marketing to the pub which would operate the kitchen.
Gareth said: “It’s another avenue we’re exploring because we have proved it can work as a full restaurant but the beauty of the concept is its simplicity. People want something hearty and simple so the concept has an affinity to the pub clientele.”
There are also on-going discussions with an overseas partner who is keen to bring the concept, the brand or both abroad after eating in the Harrogate restaurant.
“Our original plan was to have five restaurants in five years as a conservative growth plan but I think we can grow quicker than that,” Gareth said. “If we can go to a big city like Leeds or York we can show what we can do on a bigger scale. Once it’s somewhere with more exposure we can accelerate growth even quicker.”
As part of plans to build the brand both nationally and internationally a retail line is currently being planned to sell sauces and products into supermarkets.
“We want to keep the momentum going so we are open to all discussions,” said David.
The restaurant serves a choice of pork, beef and vegetarian balls with a choice of pastas, potato and lentil ‘beds’, topped off with a range of sauces and condiments.
In its first year the Yorkshire Meatball Co. has been recognised with local and national awards including being nominated for, and awarded, “Newcomer of the Year” in the 2014 Harrogate Hospitality and Tourism Awards within only four weeks of opening. This local award was followed in early November with the restaurant being named “Yorkshire & Humberside Winner” in the Big Start Up Loans Competition, a government backed initiative for new businesses.
In November 2014, it was announced as “Restaurant of the Year” in the national Startups.co.uk awards organised by the online resource for entrepreneurs. The restaurant was also shortlisted for several other local and national awards over the year including “Best Use of Local Produce” and “Best New Business” in the Yorkshire Post/Deliciouslyorkshire Awards, and “Best Restaurant” in the first annual Free From Eating Out Awards for the gluten-free market.
