Cornish ethical beauty brand Bloomtown is on course for expansion having secured a £48k grant from the BIG Productivity fund.
The Falmouth-based business, which appeared on BBC2’s Dragons’ Den last year, is the UK’s first independently certified palm-oil free company.
While it didn’t secure investment on the TV show, the exposure did lead to a big increase in business with orders from high-profile stockists such as Monsoon, National Trust, and the Royal Horticultural Society.
To meet growing demand, the business applied for a grant from BIG Productivity, a £3.1 million fund that offers grants from £2.5k up to £150k to qualifying SMEs in Cornwall to boost their productivity.
Preyanka Clark Prakash, who founded the business with husband Medwin Culmer back in 2016, said: “The entire Dragons’ Den experience was so useful to us and we had great feedback about the potential of our brand. We had a much better idea of what we needed to do to grow and more than 30% of our current customer base was because of the programme.
“The BIG Productivity grant allows us to boost production capacity and efficiency by investing in new machinery and revamp our branding and packaging while developing new products. This will allow us to acquire more high-profile stockists and meet growing demand, and we plan to take on two more staff in the next six months.”
