Decision details

The Assistant Director for Regeneration and Economic
Development agrees to award FoodArt Limited a loan for the value of £350,000.00 (three hundred and fifty thousand pounds) subject to a loan agreement being entered and evidence of signed lease, approval of appropriate licence(s) and any planning permission should it be required and evidence of match funding. It is proposed that a charge of 6.6% interest is applied to the loan and repayment are made over 60 months with a repayment holiday of 6 months (i.e., repayments begin at month 7).

Officers recommendation was approved by the PVF
Advisory Board on 25th August 2022 following the
evaluation of a funding application by officers and review
and assessment by an independent external agency.
FoodArt Limited is an established (operating since 2009)
food processing and packaging company supplying food
and drinks to retailers and restaurants in southeast
England. The company has its own branded/packaged products.
FoodArt UK works with an array of suppliers from across
the UK, Turkey, and other international suppliers. With the introduction of the new machinery and equipment the
business has laid out plans to diversify and test new
products to incorporate viable new lines of products as
part of the businesses' growth strategy.
With this investment the company will be able to respond
swiftly to changes in the market and by carrying out food
processing, labelling and packaging in house increase
production and achieve significant savings on their cost
of operation.

This project has been recommended for approval based
on the evaluation of an application and business plan
solicited through an open bidding round.
The evaluation process is set out in the application pack
and assesses applicant's proposals on the contribution to core criteria of the fund. and the financial and operation competency of the applicant
This project meets the main objectives of the productive
Valley Fund to promote production, improve productivity
and introduce more efficient ways of production in the
Upper Lea Valley area. The project offers a unique
opportunity to introduce food processing and packaging
into wholesale food market and enable them to respond
quickly to changes in the market.
The location of this business and its proximity to its
customers in greater London and southeast England
markets will support the efforts for carbon reduction and
last mile delivery initiatives.
By not offering this loan we will miss a good opportunity
to support initiatives to introduce food processing and
packaging into the food and drink wholesale markets in
the Upper Lea Valley.