Vegan takeaway bid needs new investors
WALES’ first vegan junk food takeaway is looking for investors to open a restaurant.
Greazy Vegan, which has hosted a number of successful pop-up ventures, has parted ways with its main investor and is now looking to fund a restaurant through online crowdsourcing.
The company had identified a site in Cardiff’s Castle Arcade, fronting onto Castle Street, and it still hopes to open there.
“Our main investor was a local businessman who is involved in quite a few small businesses in South Wales and the West Country,” says its owner Zoe Skinner.
“The day before we were due to make everything official with the investor we were contacted by an individual who passed on some information regarding one of his other businesses.
“We can’t say what that business is unfortunately but it goes against all our ethics.
“We felt we could not accept his investment in our company as it is such a stark contrast to our vision for Greazy Vegan.
“It is nothing illegal and he hasn’t broken any laws. He just didn’t think it needed to be mentioned to us at the time of the offer, it is more a case of not fully understanding veganism and the principles behind it.
“We have come so far on this journey and invested a lot of our time and funds we are determined to open the doors to the Greazy Vegan takeaway, therefore we are now looking at alternative funding and have chosen crowdfunding (Indiegogo) as the way forward.”
The owners hope to open up in the former site of Seasons Bar and Cafe, at the entrance to Castle Arcade. The restaurant will have seating for 40. They also have plans to use a delivery service, potentially Deliveroo, to service nearby areas such as Canton, Pontcanna, Cathays and Roath. The idea for Greazy Vegan came about from a belief that not all vegans want to eat stereotypically vegan food – but rather some “good old-fashioned takeaway food” that happens to be cruelty free. “If people would like to donate, [they can] receive some excellent perks for doing so,” says Ms Skinner. “You can find the link on our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and website. If they want to help but can’t donate at this time then sharing the campaign to get the word out there would be great.”