Chris Hannaway, part-owner of premium sports drink company, Overly has been announced as the winner of start-up support scheme Cotswold Collaborates following last week’s final.

 

 

The initiative, which was launched in February, invited applications from young fine food entrepreneurs looking for assistance with their business.

 

The final was held on the opening day of the Speciality and Fine Food Fair where the two finalists, Jacob James of Granny Tigg’s and Chris Hannaway of Overly presented their products to the audience.

 

Paul Hargreaves, managing director of Cotswold Fayre said: “This year we had two excellent contenders at the Cotswold Collaborates Final.  They both exhibited at the Speciality & Fine Food Fair, which demonstrated a real commitment to developing their brands.”

 

After the presentations the audience voted in favour of Chris, part-owner of Overly, who was presented with a £1,000 cheque to help grow the business. The ambitious entrepreneur will also receive business mentoring from Paul over the next year.  

 

Paul added: “The voting in the final was very close but Chris Hannaway from Overly edged it. I am very excited about working with Chris and his brand, which has good potential in what, is a rapidly growing category.”

 

Speaking after his win, Chris said: “It feels absolutely great to have won Cotswold Collaborates. We put a lot of hard work into the competition and it's really rewarding to have actually won it. We genuinely didn't expect it and would like to thank everyone involved.

 

“The biggest prize for us, without doubt, is the mentoring from Paul. It will be really invaluable to get his input into the business. In particular we are interested to learn best practice on how to approach potential stockists with our products.

 

“That said, the money is a big boost too and we'll be using it to market the brand - some will go towards PR, and the rest will enable us to book another tradeshow stand for November."