Mark Toy, one of the founding partners of Little Sipper had the idea for a mobile prosecco bar business having personally experienced a mobile gin offering at an outdoor event. The market demand for Italian fizz remains high, together with the novelty value of the van itself, perfect for local events and private venues. The team sourced an old van and went about remodelling it with more contemporary styling and branding.

The team found that finance was really key to get the idea off the ground in the early stages, particularly given their other existing financial commitments. It also forced the need to develop a realistic 12 month business plan to help secure the funding and overall agreement between the 3 business partners on the proposed approach / potential contingency scenarios.

Talking about the Outset Finance service, Mark says: “The Outset Finance team were great. The loan application process took a bit longer than was expected but it was detailed and thorough. It also challenged us to demonstrate more of our commercial thinking behind the business idea itself.”

Looking ahead, the team would like to develop the overall service experience for existing and future clients through additional packaged offerings. There is ambition to acquire more vans in the medium term too to help spread the local offering more widely in the South West.