BEEHIVE management company Plan Bee has appointed consumer goods sector big-hitter Mark McDavid as chairman and revealed plans to launch a crowdfunding drive to raise £200,000 for expansion.
Plan Bee, which is based in Wishaw in North Lanarkshire and focuses on “eco-innovation” and sustainability, highlighted its plans to use the funding raised to move into new premises and expand its operations south of the Border.
The beehive management company, which plans to launch its latest and largest crowdfunding drive on the CrowdCube platform next month, has already diversified into producing honey beer and Mead.
Warren Bader, chief executive and majority shareholder of Plan Bee, said the company had an annual turnover of about £200,000.
He noted that Plan Bee had last year raised £105,000 of funding on CrowdCube, and a further £75,000 in total from Kelvin Capital and the Scottish Investment Bank.
Mr Bader also revealed that Plan Bee had won a prestigious export contract to supply its honey to upmarket Swiss department store chain Globus.
He said: “It is really prestigious for a company from Wishaw to be selling in these very highfalutin places. I love it.”
Mark McDavid, from West Linton in East Lothian, has more than 30 years of experience in the consumer goods industry.
Mr McDavid has been managing director at food company Aunt Bessie’s, Hallmark Cards, and salmon farming company Marine Harvest USA.
He is currently chairman of Yorkshire-based food producer HECK! and a non-executive director of NHS National Services Scotland.
Mr Bader said: “We are just delighted to have Mark McDavid. He brings huge amounts of experience, having worked at Hallmark, at Aunt Bessie’s. For a small company like ours to get somebody like him to be our chair is fantastic.”
Plan Bee provides beehive management services for household brands including breakfast cereal company Kellogg’s and mineral water producer Highland Spring as well as for construction group Balfour Beatty and renewable energy company Low Carbon.
It also works with local authorities including Glasgow City Council, Inverclyde Council and North Lanarkshire Council. Plan Bee also provides Curriculum for Excellence sustainability education packages for local authorities.
Mr Bader highlighted the part that beehives could play in helping companies with their environmental responsibilities and their links with communities.
Noting the use of the ROI acronym for return on investment in the corporate world, he added: “I believe that companies have to be more focused on return on involvement. The more involved companies are in their communities, the better the companies will perform and the better the communities will perform.”
Mr Bader, a television commercials producer who founded Plan Bee in 2011, highlighted his delight with the employment that he had been able to create.
He said: “That is what gives me a lot of excitement.”
Mr Bader noted that seven of Plan Bee’s nine-strong workforce came from the Lanarkshire area.
Mr McDavid succeeds Mike Lees, former managing director of Tennent Caledonian Breweries UK, as chairman of Plan Bee.
Mr Lees is stepping down for personal reasons.
Mr McDavid said: “Plan Bee is a truly modern business that is environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. I defy anyone not to be impressed by the passion of Warren and his team, and their positivity for planet, people and profit is infectious.
“I am delighted to be joining the team at Plan Bee and to be involved in a business which does good for the environment and positively enriches people’s lives.”
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