Party time! Middleton makes his first million
AFTER getting engaged to the love of his life and securing a dream home, James Middleton’s domestic life has never been better.
Now I am pleased to reveal that the Duchess of Cambridge’s younger brother’s business is soaring too – his marshmallows firm, Boomf, has just made its first £1million profit.
After some rocky years with Boomf – its ongoing losses since he founded it in 2013 are £1.9 million – James, 34, admitted he suffered bouts of depression. But he has doubled down on his business efforts and the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. He reported a profit of £1,107,222 in accounts filed for last year.
James’s Reading-based office has also taken on two more staff members, taking the total on the payroll to 29. And unlike some other firms of wealthy celebs, it made no furlough claims during the pandemic.
Originally selling only personalised marshmallows, Boomf now stocks cards, flowers and other gifts including a barbecue box stocked with chilli jams and an apron reading: ‘It’s Sausage Time!’
James is also working on a posh dog food company, Ella & Co, inspired by his large pack of cocker spaniels.
In June, he and his stunning fiancee Alizee Thevenet, 30, a French financier, moved into a £1.45million Grade II listed farmhouse just a stone’s throw from the £4.7million Middleton family home in Bucklebury, Berkshire.
Not everything has been rosy, however. The couple, who got engaged in September 2019, have had to postpone their wedding twice due to Covid lockdowns.
Meanwhile, James is not the only Middleton coming up with bright ideas. I hear that his sister Pippa has come up with a new business named Pippa’s Playground.
It’s based in the same Mayfair office as her husband James Matthews’s successful hedge fund.
He invested £100,000 in Boomf in 2016 and Pippa’s Playground – described simply as ‘human health activities’ – is under his umbrella too, as two of his partners are on board.