Supporting our clients, Growers Garden

Throughout the pandemic, we have worked hard to support our clients, offering our help and advice at every opportunity to ensure they can weather the storm and come back stronger.

One such client is an innovative food manufacturing company that emerged out of East of Scotland Growers, a farmers’ cooperative whose desire was to reduce their food waste and promote sustainable farming. The result was Growers Garden – setting up a bespoke manufacturing facility in Cupar, Fife developing healthy snack alternatives, starting with their award-winning broccoli crisps.

Growers Garden has been a client of EQ since launching in September 2018, working closely with our Partner, Scott Greig since their inception. He was heavily involved in helping them secure over £2.6m of capital investment to help build their custom factory that houses Scotland’s first extrusion pellet machine. In addition, our R&D Taxperts have made significant tax savings in the last two years by making R&D tax credits claims on their behalf.

COVID-19 impacted the business and its supply chain, so Growers Garden decided to use their time to improve the efficiency of their operation and seek alternative revenue streams. Scott and the team kept in regular contact to discuss their specific needs and offer necessary support. As we prepare accurate and up to date quarterly management accounts for Growers Garden, we were able to use these as the essential financial evidence and helped them to secure funding through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). The additional cashflow provided vital working capital that allowed them to develop their product and brand.

Scott commented,

“We have worked closely with Growers Garden since the beginning, with many of our farming clients involved in the cooperative, and we are fully invested in their business. Prior to the pandemic, we were able to help them secure the necessary funding to open their factory in Cupar and I have continued to make sure that they were aware of all the grants and funding opportunities available to them, including securing CBILS funding to provide vital cashflow. As we come out of lockdown, we will continue to work closely with them to help their business grow and develop.”

Andrew Faichney from East of Scotland Growers and Growers Garden, added,

“Scott has been an instrumental part of our team, he completely understands our values and what we want to achieve, and has helped us to plan how to get there. This year hasn’t been easy for anyone, but thanks to the support we have received, we have managed to utilise the time to develop our product and can look ahead to the future with a positive outlook.”

The Growers Garden team offer a range of gluten-free, vegan-friendly snacks that can be purchased online or via a stockist in your local area. You can visit their website to find out more here.

For more information on how we support our clients, or how we can help you, please get in touch with your usual EQ contact or email our dedicated EQ Leisure team on leisure@eqaccountants.co.uk or call one of our offices.