BackgroundMy name is Giel Spierings. I am 21 years old and live on my parents dairy farm in South East Cornwall. I launched the Cornish Gouda Co in December 2012 to try to save my parents dairy farm and help them get a fair price for their milk. Since launch it has really taken off. I won 'Best New Product' award at the 2013 Royal Cornwall Show.
Why I need the MoneyI am now at full capacity in my small production and maturing area and need more space to allow me to grow the business. My ambition is to grow the business to sell 70,000 kilos annually whereby I would be able to buy all my parents milk for a fair price and save the farm. I would like to run a couple of Crowdfunder projects to help fund a larger production and maturing area.
Giel Spierings making his wonderful Cornish Gouda.
I won Ignite, Europe's largest business start-up competition, in November 2013. The Ignite prize has already helped me create more demand and help run the company. I now however need funds to help kit out my new production facilities. This includes fitting the interior to food specifications and special cheese maturing storage racking. I will also need to kit the room out with under-floor heating and cooling units to get the maturing room to the perfect conditions. The total costs to fit everything out will be £60,000 so I will be looking to raise as much as I can over several Crowdfunder projects.
The money from this project will fund me for maturing shelves. The maturing shelves that I use is very specialist wood which is grown in snowy mountains. The wood being grown in snow mean that it has grown very slowly and also means that the wood lines are closer together meaning that mould can't grow as quickly which then means that the mould on the cheese grows very slow giving me better quality cheese and less work involved with keeping them clean.
Wholesale Orders for Restuarants and Shops now available:
We are now offering restuarants and shops etc. the opportunity to benefit from an exclusive crowdfunder price for advanced orders through our voucher scheme. £250, £400, £600 options available. However other offers can be negotiated.
Supporters so far:
Here is an example of the £20 reward: