Doughnut brand reveals £12m ambition

East Midlands doughnut brand Project D has launched a £400,000 crowdfunding campaign in an effort to more than triple turnover.

The Derby company has launched the funding drive on Crowdcube. Project D was set up in 2018 by three former school friends. It now has over 100 staff and operates from an 11,000 sq ft factory.

Now, the company wants to increase turnover from £2.6m to more than £12m over the next three years. Finance raised from the crowdfund campaign will be invested in product innovation, retail expansion, digital marketing and e-commerce and office hires.

Project D marketing director Max Poynton, who set up the firm with Matt Bond and Jacob Watts, said: “This is a unique opportunity to invest in a young business that has already established itself as one of the leading doughnut manufacturers in the UK.

“There is no better time than now to be involved in this market, as the popularity of doughnuts keeps growing year-on-year.

“We offer a bigger and better product, with more innovation than any of our competitors. I’d therefore urge investors to join the inner ring and enjoy our journey towards becoming the largest doughnut company in the world.”

Project D has recently expanded its senior management team, taking on a head of finance, head of HR and head of retail and wholesale. It also works with business advisor Mark Doleman, who previously spent 20 years as a partner at Deloitte.

The firm, which has created more than 2,500 individual product lines, works with food scientists and nutritionists at a research and development facility in Corby, Northamptonshire.

Its rapid expansion has been aided by the company’s huge digital marketing push and social media following, with its TikTok account alone receiving 19m views, 1.1m likes and 27,000 comments in a single two-month period.

Project D is also preparing to open its first flagship store, in Sheffield’s Meadowhall shopping mall, with plans to open more permanent retail outlets in the near future.

“We’ve already received a great deal of interest from prospective investors,” said Poynton. “We’re extremely confident that we will smash our £400k target.

“There’s no limit to what people can invest – and we’d love to see a mix of small, £50 investments alongside some big-ticket investments.”

Poynton added that the firm future-proofed itself for fast expansion when it took on a manufacturing facility capable of turning out more than 17 million doughnuts per year. It currently manufactures around 2 million doughnuts each year at its Derby headquarters.

The crowdfund campaign has already generated £150,000 of lead investment prior to the official launch on Crowdcube.