Over-60s food firm falls flat on City debut

SHARES in over-60s food delivery business Parsley Box fell on another underwhelming debut on the London market.

The stock, trading under the ticker MEAL, listed on the junior AIM market at a price of 200p, giving the company a market value of £ 83.8m. But the shares immediately fell 10pc before recovering to close down 7.5pc, or 15p, to 185p.

The listing valued the stake held by husband and wife founders Adrienne and Gordon MacAulay, 52 and 54, at £6.9m. They started Parsley Box in Edinburgh in 2017 after struggling to find cheap and easy meals for Gordon’s mother after she moved into a sheltered home.

Early investors include chief executive Kevin Dorren, whose stake is worth £9m, and his business partner Andrew Veitch, who has a holding of £6.7m.

Mobeus, a private equity firm that invests in small and medium-sized businesses, holds a stake worth £7.6m.

As with Deliveroo, which suffered a major drop in its first day of trading yesterday, the company allowed retail investors to take a stake. Overall it raised £5m to fund its expansion, and £12m for selling shareholders.

Parsley has grown to 154,000 active customers and delivers 900,000 products per month. The company made £24.4m of sales in 2020.

It has a menu of over 60 dishes, all in single portions, with an average price of between £3 and £4, and also sells desserts, cakes, wines and spirits.

Dorren said: ‘From an idea cooked up at the kitchen table to IPO in just four years is an incredible achievement.’