Happy Pear twins land €1.5 million funding
Happy Pear twins land €1.5 million funding
Tax-break investors have pumped €1.5 million into the Happy Pear, the healthy eating empire run by twins David and Stephen Flynn.
The €1.5 million funding was invested in Flynn and Flynn Global Trade, the holding company for the business, through a Davy and BDO-managed Employment Investment Incentive Scheme (EIIS). It will be used to expand the Happy Pear’s shop and cafe footprint in Dublin and possibly other Irish locations.
“This funding is a really exciting development in our ongoing business story,” a spokeswoman said.
“We’re delighted to now have an opportunity to bring the Happy Pear to new locations where we hope it’ll have a really positive impact on the local community' and provide exciting new employment opportunities.”
With a turnover of €4 million, the Happy Pear has more than 100 employees and hopes to add to those numbers with this expansion plan, she said.
“We hope to establish new Happy Pear locations in the Dublin area in 2017, with plans for further expansion over the coming years.”
Based in Greystones, Co Wicklow, the business was founded by the Flynns 13 years ago, and is driven by the twin brothers’ advocacy of plant-based and wholefood eating. It started off as a fruit and veg shop and grew into a cafe and restaurant business.
Last year, the brothers opened Pearville, a 14,000 square foot space in nearby Kilcoole that houses a TV studio, a coffee roastery, a fermentation kitchen and two acres of vegetable growing land.
The business now has a family-run natural food store, two cafes, a sprout farm, a Happy Pear brand food manufacturing and distribution business that makes pesto, hummus, granola, snack bars and smoothies sold in Supervalu and Centra stores.
The twins have published two best selling cookbooks and run ‘happy heart’ courses aimed at helping reduce heart disease through knowledge on eating more healthily.
They are a big presence on Jamie Oliver’s YouTube channel Food Tube and his website, attracting tens of thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands of views.
They are developing a TV project that they hope to complete this year.
The business was advised on its expansion funding bid by Aidan O’Byme of OBK, a former chief financial officer at Valeo Foods who has been advising the Flynns on financial strategy for the past two years.
“The team at the Happy Pear have created a unique and innovative approach to food products,” said BDO partner Sinead Heaney.
Originally published by the Sunday Business Post.