Ed Brown (left), and Griff Holland (right) from Friska with their RBS Business Manager Nick Wade (centre), sampling some of the food on offer
Two recent Economics graduates are embarking on their own economic venture today, as they open Friska – a brand new ‘feel good’ fast food café with a difference in Bristol, with the help of £29,000 of funding from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), via the Government backed Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme, and RBS’s fellow Group business Lombard.
Visitors to Friska, situated in the new Paragon Centre on Victoria Street, will be able to sample its Feel Good Food ethos, accessing some of the world’s most exciting, healthy breakfast and lunch dishes and treats from its globally inspired menu. Customers can, however, rest assured that the dishes, including hot and cold options, speciality porridges, seasonal salads, exotic soups, more hearty meals like Moroccan Meatballs and Goan Fish Curry, and much, much more, will be created using fresh, locally and ethically sourced ingredients. Those choosing to eat in will also sample Directors Ed Brown (24) and Griff Holland’s (26) desire to bring people together through food, making the experience an enjoyable community affair. Two banks of long tables and benches seating up to twenty people in a relaxed atmosphere will provide local business people with a perfect opportunity to chill out, eat healthily and network all at the same time.
Visitors will also see Ed, Griff and those who have helped launch the business, including their RBS Business Manager, Nick Wade, represented in caricature themed branding on the walls and menus. This will be expanded on over time as Ed and Griff ask customers to submit their favourite recipes and recommend special suppliers. If the business takes on the dish the supplier may find it named after them and their caricature added to the Friska branding! For those who can’t make it in, Ed and Griff will also offer a meeting catering service to businesses in the immediate area and hope to expand this to areas like Aztec West with the purchase of a van in due course.
Not content with this through, the pair, who both studied Economics at Bath University before meeting at Bristol networking events and developing Griff’s idea for exciting feel good fast food, and their joint wish to be their own boss, are also going to be spending a day a month going into Bristol Primary Schools to educate young people about the benefits of healthy eating and supporting local growers and producers. Under the banner of the Friska Good Food Network, this will include practical cooking sessions where the children will get the chance to make and try some healthy snack and meal options. It will continue the "Good Food Network" Griff launched a year ago with the aim of helping transform the food and eating habits in the City. To date the project has already visited over twenty schools and over eight hundred pupils in the area. This is of course, all on top of their desire to bring the ‘Friska experience’ to other town’s and cities – for Ed and Griff Bristol is just the beginning.
Commenting on the launch of the Friska, Co-Director Ed Brown said: "Griff and I are thrilled to be opening the doors of Friska and look forward to welcoming our first customers. We both wanted to run our own business and the idea of combining this with the passion we both have for healthy eating and a real community lifestyle, is fantastic. Our degrees have given us the confidence to have faith in the research we have done telling us that the business can be a success even in the current climate. We like to thank everyone who has helped us along the way, including our family, friends and business mentor Simon Edwards for all their support. We’d also particularly like to thank Nick Wade, our RBS Business Manager, for everything he has done. It’s great to have a business manager based locally, who you can just call up or pop in and see on a regular basis as different things crop up and of course without the funding from the RBS Group this just wouldn’t have been possible."
Nick Wade, Ed and Griff’s Bristol based RBS Business Manager, continued: "I'm thrilled that RBS has been able to help make Ed and Griff’s dream of opening Friska become a reality. They have put a lot of time and energy into researching and developing this business and have sensibly taken advantage of all the help and advice available to them. It’s great to see all their hard work paying off – they are living proof it's not all doom and gloom out there and that RBS is still very much open for business and as committed as ever to providing funding and helping small business dreams come true."
If you would like to discuss what RBS can offer your business, or if you have a business idea and want some advice, please contact Nick Wade on 07818 427786. RBS does not charge for its advice or its Business Managers’ time and Nick will be happy to discuss the products and services on offer.
---Ends---
For further information please contact
Suzanne Turnbull
NatWest Media Relations Manager
Tel: 07799 408998
Notes to Editors
RBS is fully committed to helping small businesses in the current climate and has launched a Regional Fund to make an additional £250 million of funding available to SMEs in Region in 2009. To date RBS has led the field in taking applications for the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme with over £228 million worth of loans already agreed or in the pipeline. Of all EFG lending across the industry, RBS are responsible for nearly half of all loans drawn down.
