Moo-ve over smoothies, ‘grown-up’ milkshakes are set to be the must have product thanks to the dream of budding entrepreneur Andrew Sherick and his business partner Lisa Hunjan. Supported by the Berkshire Growth Hub, Luxuryshakes Ltd in West Berkshire is set to shake-up the dairy drinks market as its range of luxurious milkshakes launch in over 280 Sainsbury’s stores nationwide.
Aimed primarily at adults, their indulgent drinks – SSH! – are made from locally-sourced British milk and cream, and have added inclusions such as chocolate chips and soft cookie pieces making them stand out from the rest.
Lisa and Andrew Sherick, founder of Luxuryshakes, developed the idea out of his life-long passion for milkshakes and spotted a gap in the market for an off-the-shelf variety of the kind. In 2017 they bought their own factory, however, the business needed to secure investment to refit and change it from a plastic lid factory into a high care BRC grade food and drink manufacturing site. This is when they turned to the Berkshire Business Growth Hub for advice and free, tailored business support.
Lisa explains: “The Berkshire Growth Hub is a significant lifeline for businesses. We found the business support and financial landscape confusing, but the Growth Hub made it easy to access the information we needed and put us in touch with a network of investors, which has given us valuable leads and new opportunities.
“We knew a lot from our previous business but weren’t specialists in finance, so it was a real benefit to be able to tap into their expertise. They were able to advise us on our business plan, what we were offering investors, our pitches and how we present ourselves. Our adviser also introduced us to the right people at the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) to help us apply for and receive a £170,000 rural development grant towards the re-fit of the new manufacturing site in Membury. We have now successfully secured all the funding we needed from private investors and are now looking forward to what the future holds.”
In addition to the advice on finance and funding, the Berkshire Growth Hub also put the team at Luxuryshakes in contact with the Knowledge Transfer Partnership scheme at Reading University to help with the research and testing of the initial shelf-life of their products. This was able to provide them with additional resource and save them valuable time.
“Andrew first had the idea for the business back in 2009, so it has been a long and challenging journey. We wish we’d have known about the Berkshire Growth Hub when we first started. Working with them really feels like someone is on your side. They took the time to understand our business and the challenges we faced. They kept us motivated and ensured we didn’t give up. They even arranged skype meetings for us if we were unable to meet our adviser face-to-face. The service was excellent. Nothing was too much trouble, and everything was tailored to our needs!”
The future is certainly looking bright for Luxuryshakes, which has already launched two of its most popular flavours, Pot au Choc and Choc Chip Latte, in WHSmith travel outlets and now Pot au Choc and Cookies & Cream varieties in over 280 Sainsburys stores nationwide. Bespoke flavours, seasonal limited editions and a vegan range are also available.
