GlasGrows submission

Santander UK plc (company number 2294747) has its registered office at 2 Triton Square, Regent’s Place, London, NW1 3AN 1
Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards 2015 Cover Sheet
Please ensure that all of the information below is provided to enable us to contact the
finalists once selected and to obtain any further information should it be required.
By entering this competition, each of the candidates identified below agrees to be bound
by the terms and conditions governing the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship
Awards.
Please note that information regarding the submission category guidelines
(Undergraduate/Postgraduate) is provided in the information pack.
Business Name: GlasGrows
Candidate(s) name: Sukhdev Parhar, Jamie Wallace, Xiaowei Dong, Chris Holdsworth
and Junaid Ashraf
Contact number(s): 07727607160, 07736327119, 07437477751 or 07792007302
Email Address(es): sukhdevparhar@gmail.com, 0311280w@student.glasgow.ac.uk,
icedxw1995@gmail.com or chris.holdsworth.1994@gmail.com
University: University of Glasgow
Submission Category: Undergraduate
University Representative Name and Contact Details: Marion Anderson, Enterprise
Manager, Email: marion.anderson@glasgow.ac.uk Tel: 0141 330 7451 / 07725223571

Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards 2015 Contents Sheet
Page 3-4 = Executive Summary
Page 5-6 = General Introduction
Page 6-7 = Market Research and Target Audience
Page 7-10 = Pricing, Sales, Risks and Financial Information
Page 11-12 = Company Structure and Team

General introduction:
Glasgrows is a grow at home initiative. It empowers the community to use their green space, however small,
to grow their own produce, learn a new skill and become aware of the benefits of sustainable living on
health. It tools up our culturally and linguistically diverse customers - GlasGrowers - with a free starter pack,
consisting of a branded window box, compost, seeds or cutis, and growing instructions.
Glasgrowers will be supported by our volunteer network of guerrilla gardeners, operating out of mobile hubs
across the city especially with the delivery and installation of starter packs. In addition, access to our online
platform/ mobile application will provide further supports needed by Glasgrowers. (we summarize from the
counterpart - ‘what we do’ - from executive summary)
Overall strategy
Our idea: To inspire entrepreneurship, supporting one another, creating a smart, healthy community.
Our aim: To start and sustain grassroots growing communities across the UK.
Our objectives:
• Growing our community of GlasGrowers in partnership with key stakeholders to 1000 active members
across Glasgow over the next 3 years.
• Partnering with local higher and further educational institutions, especially University of Glasgow and
guerrilla gardeners, to harness the expertise and manpower of the student population.
• Improving community engagement through forming partnerships with local government, and existing local
third-sector organisations such as Housing Association.
• Cooperating with local media such as STV and local MSPs, and with the help of some celebrities to
advertise and promote the business idea, increasing publicity.
• Linking with the Curriculum for Excellence to promote active learning for school aged children about health
and wellbeing.
• Securing support and funding from the Scottish Government Community Funds, Glasgow City Council,
Community Enterprise in Scotland, increasing corporate social responsibility. We hope to pilot the project
initially in Maryhill due to its proximity to the University, the local food bank and the diverse mix of people to
be found there, with a view to further expansion subsequently.
The execution procedure
• First, looking for funding and support from various sources of funding – the city council, organisations, and
higher institutions. Topical issues that will be covered are entrepreneurship, gap land use, and technology
and expertise support. Meanwhile, publicity will be enhanced through a variety of sectors, including social
media and third-sector organisations.
• Second, establishing the products and services, including starter packs(seeds, soil, instructions and
contacts of guerrilla gardens and branded window boxes), app set-up and mobility hubs for handing out
starter-packs.
• Third, engaging with volunteers (mostly from guerrilla gardens and volunteers from universities) to run the
helping services (delivering starter packs, teaching support and consultancy).
• Fourth, let the app take the lead - teaching, troubleshooting, planting countdowns, alerts, healthy eating
suggestions from Scottish government, recipes, ordering seeds for Glasgrowers.
• Fifth, selling, exchanging and donating produce through a certain median with the help of information
shared on the app.
• Sixth, sustaining the project - getting subsequent packs for cheaper price.
Benefits and features

GlasGrowers: Entrepreneurship, Healthy eating, Empowerment
Sponsors: Brand Exposure, Corporate Social Responsibility Policy, Local investment
Community: Engagement, Sustainability, Reduced carbon footprint, Community awareness
Economy: Plugs skills gap in food and drink sector, Route to market for fresh, local produce
Market Research:
The UK’s fruit and veg sector expects growth of 7.8% between 2015 and 2019. Prices are expected to
remain volatile, due to an increasingly global marketplace and unpredictable harvests fuelled by climate
change.
In this market, 72% of UK consumers actively seek out seasonal British grown produce. (DEFRA, 2013)
Among our motivations is not always pricing, but also health. We want to know where our food comes from.
We want transparent – and local – supply chains. (Keynote, 2015) Market indicators testify to our attitudes.
Demand for specifically British organic produce has resurged since the economic crash of 2008/2009. In
2014, consumers were driven towards such produce by high yield and low prices in some UK crops
(Keynote, 2015) and budget retailer Aldi, for example, plans to capitalise, introducing its first organic range
this year. At the same time, the UK sees a continued proliferation in Alternative Food Networks such as
farmers’ markets (1997 – 1; 2008 – 500; 2012 – 750: FARMA, 2012; turnover £65m p/a and rising) and
community growing initiatives (2013: 1000 in the UK: FoCFCC, 2013).
Since 2009, Scotland has introduced 150 new local food projects, like Greener Scotland, which dovetail with
the Government’s national Happier Mealtimes campaign. Glasgow leads in this field. Our city’s appetite for
growing local and buying local is clear. We host four major farmers markets. We maintain 32 allotment sites.
And, under the City Council’s Stalled Spaces Initiative (2011), we are home to over 20 temporary community
garden spaces. While Glasgow’s Green Year 2015 scheme is encouraging partnerships across these
groups, it is not taking full advantage of one rising market that is powered, arguably, by consumers’
increasing attention to what they eat, when they eat, and where from: home growing. In contrast, GlasGrows
aims to empower growth from the grass roots: we support individuals to grow in and trade from their homes.
In 2012, 2.7% of fresh fruit and veg entering UK households came from ‘free sources.’ This rose to 3.5% in
2013. (DEFRA, Family Food, 2013) Figures for 2014 have yet to be released, but this upward trend in home
growing seems set to last. For example, Homebase report a 30% increase in sales of crops for home
growing in 2014. Keynote reports that:
‘…the rise of grow your own looks set to continue representing a small but significant threat to
volumes of fruit and veg at retail.’ (Keynote, 2015)
However, in Glasgow there are a number of barriers to participation. For a start, access to growing space is
in short supply. In 2001, 67% of the city’s households were living in flats or tenements. By 2013, the figure
was 69%. (National Records of Scotland, 2001, 2013) While the last count showed that at two thirds of the
UK’s allotments the waiting time is between 7 months and one year (Department of Communities and Local
Government, 2006), at one Glasgow allotment site, the wait (as of March 2015) is currently 8 years.
As Glasgow increases its growing space, it still cannot meet demand. Community gardens are part of the
solution, however consumers still want to grow at home. In spring 2014, the Guardian began weekly features
on ‘grow your own’ in flats and tiny urban spaces, with the Telegraph, Metro, Times and BBC following suit.
Such articles remain a regular, if seasonal, feature in these outlets, attesting to enduring consumer interest
(Keynote, 2015). Indeed, one London flat-dweller, who grows from containers, now offers a range of online
training courses (see www.verticalveg.org.uk) to other growers, has featured in mainstream media and has
had books published in the UK, Japan, and Canada. London’s shortage of private outdoor space and dense
population have catalysed the emergence of a number of free platforms for individuals to exchange home-
grown produce. Ripe Near Me, currently in beta, is a 2014 Australian start-up that has recently come to the
UK and has a growing number of followers in the capital.
In the meantime, Scottish projects, like our city’s Green Year 2015, focus on creating networks across
communal growing spaces. GlasGrows focuses on the individual household, nurturing growing communities
at this level. We offer support to all individual growers, whatever space they have, outdoors or in. However,
by providing window boxes and indoor supplies, we make growing at home accessible and practical to the
69% of Glasgow’s population living in flats/tenements.

This differentiates GlasGrows, but in the language of the market we still ‘compete’ directly with allotments
and community gardens to recruit growers, and provide initiatives that support them. Urban Roots is an
example of one of these competitors. It is building miniature allotments in a high-rise area in the south of
Glasgow, creating a market garden that grows produce specifically for sale to local fruit and veg outlets.
Arguably, GlasGrows competes doubly with Urban Roots, because we, like them, offer a platform for the sale
and exchange of produce. In this regard, we arguably vie with Glasgow’s farmers’ markets also for food-
chain conscious consumers. However, unlike Urban Roots, we do not sell in small bulk to trade, and, unlike
farmers’ markets, we do not promote the highly organised sale of goods, in relative bulk, direct to
consumers.
In contrast, GlasGrows offers a platform for individuals to share small quantities of micro-generated produce,
setting their own prices, as they choose; they are not tied to any market forces, local or global. They can
even give their goods away for free. As a ‘route to market’ for home growers, therefore, our key competitors
are developing networks such as Ripe Near Me, which has a strong user base in its native Australia and the
US, and is building steady followings in Europe, Japan, South America and India. As of March 2015, Ripe
Near Me had no users in Scotland. That said, its spread could threaten the efficacy of GlasGrows as an
exchange platform. However, the premise of Ripe Near Me, and the technology used to roll it out, are in no
way inimitable. GlasGrows can learn from its successes, and do so with certain advantages: we are local
and we support our consumers from the planting of their first window box to the sale of their first crop.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
• Focus on the whole growing
process, from seed to sale – grower
loyalty.
• Rising ‘grow at home’ trend across
UK.
• Growing appetite for growing in
flats/tiny urban spaces: 69% of
Glaswegians live in flats.
• GlasGrows has a local team.
Weaknesses
• Unpredictable climate.
• Project is easily replicated.
Opportunities
• Current lack of active sale/exchange
platform for individual growers.
• Flat-dwelling population (69% of
Glasgow’s households) are not
directly targeted by existing projects.
• Above national average waiting lists
for community gardens and
allotments.
Threats
• Competitors (allotments, Urban Roots, Ripe
Near Me, etc.): what is the balance
between competition and collaboration?
• Motivated growers going direct to garden
retailers, e.g. Homebase.
• Farmers’ markets draw motivated buyers.

Pricing, Sales, Risk and Financial Information:
We estimate the start-up costs to be around £30,000. Two thirds of this total relates to recruiting and training
a couple of freelance interns to help run the day-to-day affairs working 30 hours per week between them.
The remaining third relates to horticultural, and health and safety training for the board, staff and Guerrilla
Gardeners (volunteers). It will be used to cover stock; build an app and website with help from university
students (including hosting and maintenance); buy business and liability insurance; do marketing; and buy
some capital equipment (two mobile hubs).
P&L Forecast for years 1, 3 and 5
Assumptions: In year’s one to five we have assumed being able to raise at least £25,000 in primary funding.
We have also said we would carry out a crowd funding campaign. This will help to generate awareness. An
assumption has also been made that we’ll manage to sell at least 1000 window boxes in the first three years
and then having developed experience and awareness to treble this number of sales by year five.
Capital and Operational Expenditure: Regarding operational costs, two interns will be recruited on a self-
employed basis and aim to be in a position to recruit a manager full-time, to cover Scotland, by year five.
Training costs have been factored in for the workforce and we are aware specific grants are available from
the Third Sector to help develop workforce skills in different operational areas such as customer service
skills, administration skills, etc.. Our interns will be skilled in sales and marketing; and recruitment. We can
tap into our resource of volunteers if we need future help in the office to carry out operations. We have
estimated volunteer expenses to be approximately £1000 per month for each year, however we understand
this will vary depending on the season and ability to recruit. This amount includes travel expenses; and going
forward we may wish to use this fund to invest in our own branded transport. We hope to be placed in a
business hatchery for at least the first six months of start-up thereby cutting down in office costs, however we
do expect to have moved into office premises by the end of year one. We expect advertising and marketing
to be more expensive during our start-up year. Insurance has been based on employer liability (for volunteer
staff) and also third party liability as well as movement of money up to £1000. The main capital purchase will
include computers, printer and at least a couple of mobile hubs (trading tent, chairs and table). The cost of
sales is reflective of the number of Window box sales to our corporate clients - approximately £1500 per 50
branded and packaged window boxes.
Strategy for Growth: As for future development, it is important that we maintain relations with public
organisations (e.g. government and local communities) in order to help bridge the gap between being a
successful profitable company (which we forecast) and being a volunteer-orientated community (our
philosophy) able to supply free window boxes to the general public in our target areas. The feedback from
our first pilot in Maryhill will help to build a good image for GlasGrows, which, in turn will help boost further
engagement with other target communities. This stepping-stone approach will help us grow and tap into the
wider market nationwide.
Based on the general strategy above, within the first three years, we aim to have sold sponsorship for 1000
branded window boxes. By year five we hope to have more than trebled this number. Furthermore,
partnerships with local food companies and/or main supermarkets (e.g. Tesco) shall be considered. These
partnerships will focus on tasks such as promoting a healthy balance diet and helping resolve hunger
problems of some communities, because this is another philosophy and selling point of GlasGrows. As word
of mouth spreads and more people and organisations take an interest in our products and services, there is
room to manoeuvre if we need to increase this. We have considered moving into a premises in our
forecasting - first to a hatchery and then to an operational office. We’ll maintain a 3-month rolling forecast
filling in the actuals every month, therefore helping us to financially manage the business on a monthly basis.
We’ll also train an intern to complete a flash report of the week’s business to feed into the monthly reporting.
All the operational staff shall have a fundamental knowledge of these key financial documents to help create
a professional, financially aware culture in the organisation. Emphasis will be placed on driving in corporate
sales, selling advertising space on our digital platforms and selling our window box products and
accessories. Although the figures in the P&L and cash flow reflect anticipated growth in Glasgow, it is likely
that our organisation will roll out to other parts of the UK. The business plan and related financials would be
updated to reflect these changes.
Bottom Line: In our first year, under our current funding expectations, we expect to make a net loss of
around £10,000. This is reflective of the business taking time to train our workforce and get to know the
business inside out thereby giving space to be more experienced in taking GlasGrows forward over the next
few years. By year three, we hope to be in profit by about £10,000. Thereafter we hope to make a small
profit of at least £5000, all of which shall be reinvested back into the business to benefit the organisation and
the communities we serve.

Financial breakdown and forecast
Year 1 Year 3 Year 5
Sales and Sponsorship 21620 59600 100000
Cost of Sales 6000 15000 25000
Net sales 15620 44600 75000
Fundraising (Crowdfund) 5000 - -
Grants 27000 25000 25000
Gross Income 42620 69600 100000
EXPENDITURE
Website / online platform inc domain and hosting 1100 500 500
Interns (Self-employed) 20000 20000 20000
Board, Volunteer and Intern training 3300 2500 2500
Manager 0 0 25000
Volunteer expenses 14000 16000 16000
Event Fees 600 750 750
Mobile Hub (Capital) (2) 300 - -
Insurance P/L , E/L, etc 1000 1500 1500
Advertising/Marketing 3400 2000 1000
Office Expenses (rent, comms, equipment, stationary,
depreciation)
9000 17500 22500
NI 0 0 3450
Total Expenditure 52700 60750 93200
Net Profit -
10080
8850 6800
Cash-flow Management
We need to be careful in year one that our bank account remains healthy. In order to do this we have to
ensure applications are being made for funding, whilst being consistent in helping to drive in advertising
sales and promote the business to our next potential clients, in order to meet our target of 1000 corporate
clients. We also have to make sure that we are creating opportunities to sell additional products such as soil,
seeds, bulbs, gardening-ware and window boxes.

Sourcing Finance
We are fortunate that as a student group, we have access to competitions such as Santander University
Enterprise challenge and SIE initiatives to try and pitch for funds. However, there are also various public
sector and third sector organisations offering grants for the type of work involved in our business. We see
our main funder being the Scottish Government and through the Social Enterprise Scotland Fund
administered by Firstport we intend to access between £25,000 and £100,000 in the first five years to help
cover operating costs. Business Gateway offer a business start-up grant of £1000 and also a digital grant
that we should be able to access in relation to our website and app. Moreover, Community Food and Health
(NHS Scotland) offer an annual development fund of between £500 and £3000 for initiatives such as ours to
help tackle one or more of the barriers to healthy eating, such as affordability or availability, and the negative
impact of culture and lack of food skills.
Apart from the major funds we might get from the government, there are several other funding streams that
we are able to apply for. These funds tend to be related to gardening, farming business (e.g. focusing on
helping people building up their own community gardening projects thus promote community engagement to
some extent) or aiming at helping people develop a healthy diet.
Managing the Risks
There are several potential risk factors to look out for. Firstly, we might fail to secure the main fund we are
hoping for. In the event of this happening we will apply to a sufficient number of other smaller funds and
make contact with other funders so they are aware of us. Next, future revenue may not meet our planned
financial expectations. In this case, we shall interact more with schools to help foster good relations with
teaching staff, pupils and parents creating a positive image and a demand for our services. Another risk
could be that we attract competition. In this instance, we shall ensure that our uniqueness, key features and
core competences (e.g. the original idea about building a smart city, helping people live a sustainable life)
are developed no matter how fierce the competition may be. Finally, we may find volunteer recruitment does
not attract sufficient numbers of experienced gardeners. In this case we can use our network of colleagues
involved in volunteering at Glasgow University (such as GUEST who currently operate a wildlife garden and
have access to university ground staff) to assist as well as tie in to the legacy of volunteers from Glasgow
2014. In all cases, we shall be scanning the macro-environment frequently to keep aware of what’s
happening around us as this will help us to adapt and move forward by either avoiding or managing the
challenges or by embracing new opportunities.

Team and Company Structure:

Recruitment:
Paid positions:
• Online advertisement for vacant positions
• Interview of interested candidates
• Selection of competent candidates
Voluntary roles:
• Recruitment of volunteers from the community where the project is taking place
N/B: the company will train all recruited persons

GlasGrows submission

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