Urban meadows bid as Plan Bee targets city areas
A START-UP biodiversity company wants to create urban meadows in brownfield city centre sites.
Plan Bee already leases beehives and sells honey to a number of businesses and organisations in Scotland including Stobo Castle, Mar Hall, Glasgow Caledonian University and Glasgow’s Holiday Inns.
Warren Bader founded the business in September last year and is now aiming to convince local authorities to let his company perform a different kind of regeneration on some gap sites.
He said: “I want to re-seed brownfield sites with wild flowers and bring in pollinating insects.
“I’m hoping to work with local authorities to redevelop land where projects have stalled and temporarily turn them into an oasis in the city.
“In Glasgow it would work in the run up to the 2014 Commonwealth Games so any visual dereliction is hidden.”
Mr Bader, who was a film and television producer in his native South Africa, said Plan Bee will produce “ethical, pure, unfiltered and cold pressed honey”.
The produce will be marketed under the Origin label for the local market and Flowers o’ Scotland for international sales.
He said: “The hives help the sustainability of the hotels and other businesses which is becoming a bigger part of the corporate structure.
“Obviously there is less need to rack up air miles importing it when they can use their own honey.
“We also offer a scheme where companies can adopt a hive and then get some of the product packaged under their own livery.
“We don’t over process the honey, as raw from the hive tastes best, just as nature intended.”
Plan Bee was also recently selected as one of the 100 most inspirational start-ups at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Liverpool.
Mr Bader is one of a number of entrepreneurs being mentored by the Entrepreneurial Spark organisation in Glasgow.
It has secured high-profile backers such as Willie Haughey and Sir Tom Hunter, with both men donating time and premises to help up-and-coming business ventures flourish.
Jim Duffy, chief executive of Entrepreneurial Spark, said: “Warren displays all the entrepreneurial traits that are necessary to grow a new venture. His work ethic is astounding and Plan Bee has great potential.”
Now Mr Bader is considering ways of raising capital to widen the sales of honey and to establish more hives.
He added: “There are not good stocks of bees in the country at the moment and it is expensive to roll this out.
“I’m looking for investors but I think we may end up crowdfunding as that will be the most natural route for us.”
The company, which intends to keep its products organic and carbon neutral, has also won a year’s free rent from North Lanarkshire Council for a food processing unit in Motherwell.