In December Maven completed the £800,000 investment into The London Tea Company, a specialist importer of premium organic tea products into the food service, gift and retail markets, to provide working capital to support the future growth of the business. The company was founded in 2004 by current Managing Director Dinuk Dissanayake and his brother, and offers a large and varied range of gourmet organic and fair-trade tea products to their target markets. London Tea’s business model has a low cost base with most functions (such as manufacturing, warehousing and distribution) outsourced to help produce a very high quality and competitively priced product. The majority of sales are to UK customers, which include prestige hotels and major high street retail chains, and the business is also building an expanding global export base.
The Capital for Enterprise Fund
The £75 million CfE Fund is a Government backed initiative launched earlier this year to help small and medium size enterprises (“SMEs”) in the UK gain access to the financial support required to bridge the funding gap caused by the credit crisis. In April 2009, it was announced that £60 million from the CfE Fund would be allocated to two separate £30 million funds, one of which is managed by Maven. A further £15 million is being managed as a co-investment fund by Capital for Enterprise Fund Managers. For further information see www.capitalforenterprise.gov.uk