We have been predicting that FMCG is one of the last bastions of adoption of e-commerce. Unfortunately for us, it has taken a lot longer than first predicted (it always does!).

The onset of Covid-19 has been a catalyst like no other to change consumption habits of consumers from in store to in home. Every niche area of grocery that has an element of D2C has seen significant growth over the last few months.

This acceleration of adoption has been driven by mass sampling of FMCG brands in home during the lockdown which has suggested that standing in a line outside a supermarket is no longer much fun.

E-commerce has driven this change and as we have seen from recent research in China the adoption has stuck post the lockdown.

I expect this in turn will happen in Europe and we will see a shift like no other into D2C for FMCG brands.

We are here to help and have extensive experience in this area.

Starting companies is lonely, sometimes you need someone to share the pain and heartache of a startup with you.

We love working with founders and love to be a co-founder, it’s been our most successful investment strategy.

We are active investors and managers so we are not pitching you money alone, in fact we are pitching “value add alone”

You don’t pay for it, appreciate it, value it or give us anything for it.

But once you have a successful startup with us you appreciate our input.

Startups aren’t easy, but they are easier with a cofounder.

Get in touch

Having spent the last 3 days speaking to many investors about Parsley Box our senior nutrition brand I am struck by the opportunity in this sector.

Investors and founders all see the demographic shift that creates the macro opportunity within the ageing population.

The issue is there are very few investment opportunities in this area. Venture and PE investors are attracted to bright, young things who have created the next consumer opportunity. Very few of these founders think about their grandparents as a target market, leading to a massive lack of startups in this area.

The biggest insight is that the demographic isn’t one uniform group, most consumer products are targeted towards the “old old”

This is characterised by mobility aids, comfortable shoes and grey haired consumers walking along the beach enjoying life.

We are more interested in the young old. They are active, physically and mentally, love to go out and are actively enjoying their life.

We plan to work extensively with this consumer to improve all aspects of their lives from nutrition to housing.

Stay tuned!

I meet a lot of D2C brands, especially in the FMCG space. I love chatting to them and trying to understand their marketing channels, technology stack, unique proposition etc.

But I always come back to a core issue that a lot of the D2C brand’s havent thought about – consumption. Most retail brands think about this a lot, to get a brand listed in a retailer is incredibly hard, but what is even harder is getting regular purchase.

Regular purchase is really simply down to consumption, the product you bought in the retailer, needs to be consumed and replaced.

If it isn’t consumed, then you have a problem (you will get kicked out of the retailer) or online you will die! Your CAC:LTV won’t support your growth aspirations and you will literally die as a brand!

So I love to focus on this in any conversation. It is so obvious that most D2C brands don’t think about it, generally, they are so focused on getting the first sale, consumption or repeat purchase is an afterthought.

It shouldn’t be. Delve deeply into the consumers thought process and try to work out where you are going to go once you have a trial from a customer. Why will they consume more, and how often do they use your product.

This is why certain categories of D2C brands are really attractive. The obvious one is shaving (Dollar Shave Club ad break 26m views!) – most men do it every day, so you have regular consumption of razors, causing higher LTV. It wasn’t the quirky ad alone that made the brand successful.

Pet Nutrition is another area of extreme consumption, that’s why we love this sector and Bella and Duke.

So you run a D2C brand – think obsessively about consumption – it will take you far!

Parsley Box has completed an additional £1.6m investment from new and existing investors.

Chris Van Der Kuyl and Paddy Burns join the shareholder base with an additional £1.3m investment. The round was also supported by the existing investors including Bill Dobbie and Kevin Dorren.

The additional funds will be used to accelerate growth and investment expand the companies product offering.

The investment follows the record sales month with over 30,000 deliveries to customers throughout the UK.

Full coverage in this weeks Sunday Times