Cookson pumped up with £750k for new venture

OLIVER Cookson has secured a £750,000 loan from the Greater Manchester Investment Fund (GMIF) to support his new venture.

He sold his sports nutrition brand MyProtein in 2011 to The Hut in a £58m cash and shares deal.

Last year he returned to the sector with Wythenshawe-based GoNutrition.com which he aims to build into the biggest sports nutrition brand in Europe by offering high levels of customer care and 100% transparency on ingredients.

The cash will be used to double staff numbers to 50 by next May and expand production capacity.

Mr Cookson, who has already invested £2m, said: “MyProtein was a revolution but GoNutrition is an evolution.

“We’ve launched in Germany and Italy and we’re bringing money from those countries right into the North West. The GMIF are on the same page as us and believe in the team we’ve got here.

“Using the support of GMIF coupled with mine and the management’s proven success in this market, we’re all focused on making GoNutrition the number one sports nutrition brand in Europe.”

Mike Blackburn, chair of the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership (GMLEP), said: “Increasing employment opportunities and skills locally is a key focus of the GMLEP – in particular, supporting business development and entrepreneurship and growing European trade opportunities. GoNutrition’s expansion presents an exciting opportunity and is a worthy recipient of this loan; something from which Greater Manchester will really benefit.”

The £100m GMIF, administered by the Greater Manchester LEP, is drawn from the government’s Regional Growth Fund and its Growing Places Fund.