Oddbox Kickstart the Wonky Veg Revolution
Oddbox Kickstart the Wonky Veg Revolution
● The UK’s biggest independent wonky veg box scheme smashes crowdfunding target by raising £520,000
● Investment will help Oddbox reach 600% more households by 2019
● Business hits sustainable and ethical zeitgeist
27th July 2018: Oddbox, London’s biggest independent wonky fruit and veg box scheme, reached its crowdfunding target in record time to enable it to expand its unique service to even more customers. It initially hoped to raise £350,000 but investors saw the huge potential offered by the business and it over-funded to a tune of £520,000.
The purpose-driven business has captured people’s imagination by offering a quality, sustainably-sourced product which is conveniently delivered to your door at a great price. Oddbox’s weekly boxes are filled with delicious wonky and surplus fruit and veg that have been rescued from farms and would otherwise have been wasted. It pays farmers a fair price for their produce and donates up to 10% to tackle food poverty by partnering with charities like City Harvest.
Oddbox launched in 2016 and delivers to over 1,600 homes in South London and 85 offices in central London but has a waiting list of over 3,000 people keen to subscribe. The £500,000 investment will be used to upgrade its tech platform, build a strong brand, optimise operations and expand the expertise in its team. This will help the business broaden its delivery area to reach their goal of 12,500 customers by 2019 but the work has already begun with 15 new postcodes in West and East London rolling out from August
Emilie Vanpoperinghe, Oddbox co-founder explains: “We are incredibly humbled to have exceeded our investment target in such a short space of time. The support we have had from customers and investors has been phenomenal and we can’t thank them enough. We believe wholeheartedly in our wonky fruit and veg scheme and we’re looking forward to bringing it to more people.
We won’t stop there though, our mission is to fundamentally shift food standards and eventually, normalise wonky produce and we need everyone to get involved. Come and join the wonky veg revolution with us!”
Oddbox was inspired by eating a misshapen but delicious tomato in Portugal and the founders wondered why they couldn’t get similar produce in the UK. When they returned from holiday, they convinced two British farmers to sell them their imperfect and surplus produce which they paid a fair price for. They boxed it up, charged 30% less than other veg box schemes and delivered them to 10 customers in South London from the back of their car.
For more details on Oddbox, visit: www.oddbox.co.uk
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Notes to Editors:
For media enquiries, photography or comment please contact:
Vickie Rogerson at North PR – vickie@northpr.co.uk / 07951 602410
Maria Bell at Oddbox - maria@oddbox.co.uk
About Oddbox:
Oddbox delivers small to large seasonal wonky fruit and vegetable boxes weekly or fortnightly to people’s homes in South and West London. It works with and pays a fair price to over 30 growers in England. It charges around 30% less that similar veg box schemes and starts at an affordable £8.99 for a small veg box with the largest box costs £17.25 which caters for a large family.
It also delivers fruit boxes to offices around London.