MAIDENHEAD FOOD APP SMASHES CROWDCUBE FUNDRAISING TARGET

An online food delivery marketplace which offers quality, fresh home-cooked food and aims to disrupt the £10+ billion UK restaurant delivery market, has secured more than double its target fundraise on Crowdcube, raising more than £600,000, way ahead of the £300,000 target.

Cook My Grub, launched by founders Shabbir Mookhtiar and Dinesh Patil. is already generating revenue in Maidenhead, Windsor, Slough and Marlow. It delivers healthy and sustainable food for people unable to cook wholesome meals at home.

Brian Dixon, Chef Director at Cook My Grub, said: “The global pandemic has severely damaged the hospitality sector, resulting in thousands of chefs being made redundant. With Cook My Grub, these chefs have a platform to make a living.”

The business considers people’s cuisine choices and food preferences like veganism, vegetarianism, halal and glutenfree. Meals can be ordered on the day or pre-ordered several days or even weeks in advance.

Cook My Grub helps home chefs set up their own virtual restaurant which gives them the flexibility to decide when, what and how much they cook.

The funds raised will support further growth by increasing marketing, scaling up operations and growing the technology teams. Further roll out of the service is planned across additional geographies

Chippenham civil engineering company secures £1 million investment

A Chippenham based civil engineering contractor has secured a £1.1 million investment from Lloyds Bank.

Headquarted in Marshfield, the familyowned MJ Church has bought four new articulated dump trucks to add to its 25 vehicles in response to growing customer demand.

MJ Church is the main contractor on the £17.5 million upgrade of junction 15 of the M4 motorway which began last August.

The seven-digit investment to the family owned business was facilitated by a loan from Lloyds Banking.

Ben Staff, MJ Church Group Managing Director, said: “We remain committed to maintaining a modern, techenabled fleet of vehicles to allow us to deliver best-in-class services to our customers across our wide range of service areas.

"We’re constantly looking for ways to enhance our technology and the availability of first-class equipmentand this investment does just that.” with launches in Reading, West London, Swindon and the Home Counties through 2021. The company’s goal is to grow and consolidate the home-cooked food market by organising a currently unorganised sector.

Europe’s largest logistics developer buys Honda’s Swindon site

Japanese car manufacturer Honda has sold its Swindon factory to Panattoni, Europe’s largest developer of new build industrial and logistics facilities.

Honda built its European centre of manufacture in Swindon in 1985, but last year announced it would close this July.

Panattoni has promised to invest £700 million into redeveloping the 370-acre site, much of which has never been built on.

Jason Smith, Director at Honda of the UK Manufacturing, said: “We are pleased to have identified a capable new owner for the site. From our engagement with Panattoni and initial discussions with Swindon Borough Council, we are confident the new owner can bring the development forward in a commercially timely fashion and generate exciting prospects for Swindon and the wider community.”