Help us on the next stage of our Pakora adventure

Aim

Started out as a street food business- then COVID struck! Now, we have set out sites on the Retail / Food to Go Market and we need YOU!

My name is Sheetal, aka The Pakora Explorer. We are Scotland’s only street food provider specialising in Pakora as well as a variety of homemade specialty spice blends & chai tea! Born out of a love for food & a passion for hospitality, we have been operating to some fanfare and success since 2019 and even in 2020 with everything that happened.  

My parents are originally from Pakistan (with Indian roots) but moved our family to the Orkney Islands in 1988 (via London!).  Glasgow is now the place I call home. My Pakora recipe (taking one of Scotland’s favourite snacks and blending it with our secret family recipe and Mama Pakora’s special blend of spices) represents the things I love best about my family, heritage, and Scotland. 

In 2020, I was going to quit my job (much to my parents’ dismay!) and do this full time. Business was booming; we were booked throughout the year and my side hustle was quickly becoming my full-time hustle. Then, COVID changed all of that. I was furloughed from my primary job (which I fortunately had not yet quit!), and The Pakora Explorer was brought to a halt. This meant that while government support could help me with my lost salary, because The Pakora Explorer was not my primary business it would not qualify for any special loans or COVID relief. 

During COVID we even managed to open a Pakora Drive Thru for one week (long story!) Just to keep the business going, and we keep thinking outside the box.

In the past year, we’ve innovated our business in several ways, launching:

• Packaged Pakora meals available in local supermarkets, farm shops & delis
• Pakora spice packets available for shipping worldwide
• Online Pakora Making Classes
• Festive & special occasion Pakora Platters

These innovations can help us grow our business and keep us on our mission to bringing delicious Pakora flavour to more and more people. However, anyone who's started a business knows that cash flow can be the biggest problem. I started The Pakora Explorer with my own savings and hard work, but we are at a critical stage in the business that I can no longer personally fund. We are on the brink of being able to grow but finding that tension of the need for more money to fund our growth potential. With outside funding, we can leverage reduced costs which in turn will help us find new ways of bringing delicious Pakora to more people like you. 

As with many businesses, what sometimes feels like the end is just the beginning. Having to pause our typical food-truck business due to lockdown allowed us the time to step back and re-evaluate; while our passion is bringing our love of Pakora and traditional Pakistani flavours to new places, we don’t necessarily need only a truck to make that happen! This is where you, dear reader, come in...

At the time of writing this, we are only 3 weeks in to the launch of our first product our Mixed Veg & Chicken Pakora - and sold 300 packs (not bad when you consider we have no marketing budget, no big banner-ads, a one person sales team...!) 

What will we do with the money?
To give you an idea of what we will be spending the money on, I’ve outlined some of our key initiatives below. These numbers are big, but remember, every donation no matter what size, will help!

Product Innovation: £4000

Having launched one product already, we are ready to launch the next 3 products. This money will cover the costs due to the manufacturer e.g. product flow sheets, nutritional testing and product development training etc.

Bulk Packaging: £4,000

Buying 10,000 units of packaging vs 5,000 units reduces our unit cost by 12%! 

Bulk Ingredients: £3,000

Bulk buying our dry mixes and secret spice blends that are produced in a British Retail Consortium (BRC)-required factory will allow us to bring down our average cost per unit.

Professional Kitchen Fryers: £1,800

Purchasing larger fryers will increase our frying capacity by up to 77%!

How can you get involved?

We are offering some great rewards if you are able to donate.  With rewards starting from just £5.00, there's something for everyone to help support us.  Every donation will help us in growing our business and achieving our mission of sharing diverse flavours and tastes around the world. 

Finally, why not help us to spread this message and share this post with your online community I’d be most grateful!

This project successfully funded on 27th March 2021