Since its launch in June 2020, Feverfew Garden Company has already witnessed great success in its first six months of business. This phenomenal growth shows no signs of abating as Feverfew has recently been awarded £10,000 of funding from Scottish EDGE, the UK’s biggest business funding competition.
The Orkney-based ladies’ garden wear business, founded by entrepreneur, Rachel Eunson, came away with a cash pot of £10,000 from the largest funding competition in the country for potential high-growth businesses and the awards are backed by the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Hunter Foundation, the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise (SE).
Rachel entered Feverfew into the ‘Young EDGE’ category which has been designed to support companies whose directors are all aged 18-30. She submitted her entry application in August, shortly after Feverfew had launched, which was made up of a written application that teased all the business’s important details, including financials, margins and strategy. Rachel supported this with a social and environmental impact statement and a strong three-minute pre-recorded pitch.
Rachel found out Feverfew had made it through to the final in mid-September. It was then time to prepare for a live pitch to a panel of judges via Zoom, followed by seven minutes of questions for the final. Feverfew scooped the award and won the ‘Young EDGE’ funding after Rachel impressed the judges who said she was “A very impressive founder who has identified a gap in the market and brought the product to sales with a strong social impact.”
The Scottish EDGE Awards ceremony and dinner took place at Citation in Glasgow on the 29th of November. Rachel said of her win: “I am delighted to win this Scottish EDGE funding award and receive such positive feedback from an esteemed panel of judges. I founded Feverfew Garden Company after being unable to find a pair of gardening gloves that were functional, well-fitted and designed to my tastes. After months of research and development, our Feverfew Original Women’s Gardening Gloves were designed to be the perfect summer all-rounder, providing the best possible balance of style, functionality and fit. I’ve been overwhelmed with how popular they have been since our launch in June and can’t wait to develop more products for our growing community of customers.”
Evelyn McDonald, CEO of Scottish EDGE said: “Rachel’s pitch had our Young EDGE judging panel asking that age-old question of ‘why hasn’t someone thought of this before?’. Feverfew is a perfect example of a business that has addressed a seemingly simple market need with the required determination to undertake a not-so-simple route to market. We’re delighted to support Feverfew’s journey at these early stages, and I look forward to watching the business’ growth in the years ahead.”
The gloves have taken the gardening world by storm featuring in leading consumer titles including being awarded Best Buy by Gardenersworld.com and are a firm favourite with influencers. Rachel plans to use the Scottish EDGE money to add to the range of women-specific gardening gloves and launch into the sun hat category in spring next year.
