Parsley Box raises £5.9m, announces open offer to raise more

Ready meal delivery company Parsley Box announced the successful raising of £5.9m on Friday, in a bid to fund its customer acquisition and growth strategy.

The AIM-traded firm said the funds were raised through a placing and subscription, and announced details of an open offer to be made to qualifying shareholders to raise up to an additional £1.1m at the same issue price of 20p per share.

It said the proceeds would be used to fund “targeted” new customer acquisition, the development of an “online customer journey” tailored to its demographic, and the development of a membership program to encourage a “customer community”.

They would also fund product development, with the open offer funds to strengthen its balance sheet and provide general working capital to support the scale-up of the business.

The board said the growth strategy was designed to increase revenues from “high-quality customers”, aiding it in achieving EBITDA profitability.

Under the completed fundraising, 29,618,000 new shares were being allotted to new and existing investors, with up to another 5,513,464 new shares to be issued under the open offer.

The fundraising and open offer remained conditional on the passing of resolutions at the company’s general meeting.

“Parsley Box delivers ready meals direct to the underserved ‘baby boomer plus’ consumer, broadly defined as those aged 60 and over,” the board said.

“Its mission is to champion and empower the over 60s.

“The core product range comprises over 60 single portion sized meals spanning various cuisines.”

At 1253 GMT, shares in Parsley Box Group were down 4.57% at 20.04p.