Pembroke’s investment will be used to fund Sourced Market’s site roll-out plan across London. The company is already in advanced discussions with a number of key developments and intends to open 10 additional sites over the next five years.

Sourced Market began as a touring market and has provided high quality food at Britain’s best music, sporting and cultural events. On establishment in 2007 Sourced Market focused on designing, building and managing bespoke street food markets.

Ben O’Brien, founder of Sourced Markets, said: “the kernel of the idea for Sourced Market came from my twin passions: food and music. As a devout foodie, I loved living in Borough Market, but my experience at music festivals was one of utterly crap food. The conclusion was easy: it doesn’t need to be like this – and so the idea for Sourced Market came into being. I got the best Borough stallholders together and invited them to provide stalls at targeted events. Since then we have been to Lovebox Weekender, the Big Chill, the Olympic Sailing and British Summertime Hyde Park concerts, to name a few. Their stalls sold out almost immediately and they had to rush to re-stock overnight for the next day.”

Following this success, the next logical step was taken. As Ben sees it: “The food at Borough Market is exceptional, wholesome food, that is local and sustainable – but it is restricted to Borough Market. So the obvious extension of the concept was to take the best Borough Market, package it into a convenience-based retail platform.”

A permanent store was opened in the newly opened St Pancras International in 2009. Operating as a “hybrid market”, Sourced Market now delivers the quality, variety, atmosphere and shopping experience found at farmers’ markets with the operational efficiency and convenience of a major high street convenience store. The emphasis is on fresh seasonal food, grown locally where possible, with a strong British theme. Sourced Market serves over 500,000 customers annually from its one store.

Ben added: “London property developers are regenerating areas of central London with a focus on very high quality, premium office rental space. These developments need retailers and amenities to service the occupants of these offices that reflect their lifestyles and personal preferences. Our conversations with landlords suggest that our concept of convenience combined with very high quality fits extremely well with the ambience and services they are trying to create within their developments which is why we are getting a great deal of interest from them.”

Commenting on Pembroke’s investment, Ben added: “As we enter the next stage of our development we are delighted to be working with Pembroke. We look forward to opening new sites and bringing the high quality, locally sourced produce we are known for to a larger audience across London.”

Andrew Wolfson, CEO of Pembroke, added: “We are delighted to be partnering with Ben and the team at Sourced Market. The business has consistently hit its financial targets and despite currently operating only one retail outlet, Sourced Market already generating healthy profits. With its consumer focus and scalable business model Sourced Market is an excellent and complementary addition for our portfolio.”

About Pembroke Venture Capital Trust:

Pembroke was launched on 5 April 2013 to invest in early-stage consumer facing businesses. Pembroke is managed by Oakley Investment Managers LLP, part of the Oakley Group; an asset management and financial advisory business led by private equity veteran Peter Dubens. Peter Dubens is the founder and a non-executive director of Pembroke.

http://www.pembrokevct.com