New initiative to boost Cornwall's food & drink sector launches with Crowdfunder campaign

A new community interest company, Croust, is launching this week to put Cornwall’s food and drink sector at the forefront of the UK’s food and drink market.

As a new community interest company, ‘Croust’, is working in partnership with the many talented food and drink producers across Cornwall, with the mission of putting Cornwall’s food and drink sector at the forefront of the UK’s food and drink market, adding to Cornwall's recovery and future prosperity. For every £200 given through the Crowdfunder £1000 is provided through the EU match funding. A potential £800,000 could be harnessed.

“Many counties are telling the stories behind their provenance and their producers through a centralised organisation, attracting the eyes of the world.  There is so much scope and benefits that could come from creating a brand new non-for-profit community interest company to harness and unlock all the potential Cornwall’s food and drink sector has to offer” explains Founding Director Louise Brooks-Curry. 

Following the unexpected closure of Fifteen Cornwall and the Cornwall Food Foundation. Louise found herself redundant just before Christmas last year. Louise has since been on a mission, channelling all of her time, passion and focus into creating a new CIC concept for Cornwall to inject new life into our food and drink sector. Louise continues: 

“It was terrible to see all the great work that my colleagues and I were doing on the Experts Grow project to inspire and bring new skills to 60 Cornish food and drink businesses, come to an unexpected end. We were amazed to discover all of the untapped potential that was hiding within our Cornish food and drink sector.’ We were truly in awe of the incredible young talent that the sector was attracting and the wonderful array of small local businesses within.” 

Having worked for many years in providing NVQs and Apprenticeships to larger food and drink businesses within Cornwall, Louise explored ways in which the food and drink sector in Cornwall could really come together. To grow brand Cornwall out of county, harness export, distribution and tourism opportunities and ways in which together we could combat employment and skills shortages. She studied and researched extensively and could see first-hand the work that our surrounding counties were doing to harness the potential within their food and drink sectors.

Holly Harwood from Hollys Gin says; “"It's so important to have a network of food and drink businesses in Cornwall. As a small Cornish gin company, I have enjoyed collaborating and sharing ideas with other brands in the county. I would love to see more young entrepreneurs being as passionate about the food and drink industry as I am! We need Croust to bring us all together and showcase the incredible brands we have in Cornwall!"

Mark Duddridge, Chair of Cornwall and Isles of Scilly LEP also supports the initiative and explains; “Cornwall and the Isles of Scillies are justifiably proud of our food and drink industry but Covid has hit the industry really hard. Croust aims to help rebuild and reconnect Cornwall food and drink to all markets be they local, national or international. New supply chains, new markets, new products and new ways of doing business will all emerge in the months and years ahead which Croust will support if their funding ask can be delivered in the weeks ahead. I wish the team every success.”

The crowdfunding campaign is now live with a variety of fantastic rewards and early-bird membership offers. The target is £35,000 and many of Cornwall’s business names have been volunteering talent and time to make Croust CIC a reality. View the video and donate to the crowdfunding campaign here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/croust-fooddrinkcic?tk=334ab9c66c0364a2be4568e2864ee96ce3ca6bff