Kate’s brother loses £2m on marshmallows

The Duchess of Cambridge’s brother has seen his marshmallow company almost double its losses in just a year.

James Middleton’s firm Boomf, which makes personalised confectionary, made a loss of £2.19million in 2016, compared with £1.17million the previous year.

James, 30, founded Boomf, which prints photographs on marshmallows, in 2013 and playfully refers to himself as the company’s ‘Wonka In Chief’.

The company is based at his parents’ Party Pieces premises near the family home in Berkshire but he also has an office in a shipping container in hackney, east London. It as struggled to make a profit since its inception and has been propped up by friends and family.

It comes days after his older sister Pippa, 34, closed her own business, PXM enterprises, which previously managed her publishing activities, including her muchmaligned party-planning book and contributions to Waitrose magazine.