Berkshire: Snaffling Pig's crowdfunding campaign gets off to flying start

Leading pork snack brand Snaffling Pig has launched a £750,000 crowdfunding campaign to drive the foodie scale-up’s next phase of growth. At launch, the team has secured over 60% of its target from pre-registered investors.

In a bid to take on the £3.2 billion chilled pork market, the Berkshire-based business – that’s made its name in blending great innovative snacks with its trademark cheeky branding – is looking to invest further into core marketing functions, taking its £5.2m turnover to £50m-plus in the next five years, offering a 7% stake in the business. It will also develop a new van sales operation.

Founded by CEO Nick Coleman and COO Udhi Silva in 2014, Snaffling Pig operates across three channels - grocery, on-trade and gifting – with its pork scratchings (flavours range from Marvellous Maple to Pig of Doom) sauces, beer, cider, peanuts and a ceramic BBQ with giftsets retailing in John Lewis, Debenhams, Selfridges and Fenwick. The brand sold a record 47,000 pork scratching advent calendars last year alone. In January 2019, the Dragons’ Den alumni launched a new gammon range in Sainsbury’s, entering the chilled meats markets, as the business - valued at £10m - shifts focus to grocery and on-trade.

The new phase of investment will be used to expand reach for the Snaffling Pig brand, with a focus on activating campaigns across key supermarket customers, including Tesco and Sainsbury’s. The team will also widen distribution within its growing pub marketplace, through improved van operations. An additional five new sales and marketing facing roles will be created within the team, taking it to 15 employees in 2020.

“We’re genuinely overwhelmed by the incredible support we’ve had from our early investors and customers so far. You inevitably feel a little vulnerable launching a crowdfund campaign so to have this response from our community – and know they believe in our product as much as we do – makes us all the more excited about this next phase. Community has been at the core of Snaffling Pig’s so we can’t wait to invest more into it.”

Snaffling Pig’s crowdfunding campaign will be powered by its brand new Swine Dining Club. Open to every investor, regardless of what they put in, it’s set to become a community of people, sharing similar values, a desire to disrupt and have the great conversations Snaffling Pig products inspire. As members of the club, investors will enjoy meet-ups and events running throughout the year, focused on booze and food, fun and fitness, and, naturally, business.

With snacking at the core of the brand, Snaffling Pig will continue to build on existing consumer snacking habits – 79% of people currently snack at home – while evolving new products to respond to future, more health-centred trends.

The team has also set the stake in the ground with the rise of veganism – currently accounting for 1% of the UK population (Ipsos Mori commissioned by The Vegan Society). With 9% of the population vegetarian, and a further 30% actively reducing their meat intake, Snaffling Pig will be leveraging the opportunities within the £6 billion spend by consumers on pork meat each year.

“60% of consumers are cutting back on snacking for health reasons, alongside those reducing their meat intake,” said Coleman. “But, we know, that when they do treat themselves, they want taste and indulgence – there’s very few brands in the affordable, mid-range category, which is where Snaffling Pig belongs. Our focus on sustainable pork meat at a time when it’s super-sexy to be a vegan brand gives us so much room for more innovation and exciting product development, with new launches planned for later this year.”