Member Article

Entrepreneurial duo unveil St Leonards' first fully-licensed burger restaurant

Inspired by their frequent trips to authentic American burger joints, entrepreneurial duo Rory Myers and Matt Woodhouse decided to bring the experience to the south coast, with the first fully-licensed burger joint in the East Sussex town of St Leonards,

Located at 7 Marine Court, the pair’s venture HalfMan!HalfBurger! officially opened on Saturday, July 11.

After honing their skills at pop-up and street-food events in Brighton and on the UK festival circuit the pair decided it was time for a permanent home.

Rory and Matt approached the Let’s Do Business Group (LDBG) earlier this year and successfully applied for a £7,000 Start Up Loan (SUL) each to help cover the start-up costs including refurbishing the venue.

With further assistance for business support service Locate East Sussex, they were approved for a £10,000 grant and were introduced to useful contacts at Hastings Borough Council to secure the licenses and meet the relevant regulations.

Rory said: “The Start Up Loans scheme was hugely helpful. It would have been almost impossible without the loan, as well as the grant through Locate East Sussex.

“The loan and grant co-ordinators expect to see a working plan, and they insisted we go back again and again to work on our figures and projections. This helped educate us and in turn gave them confidence in lending.”

The SUL scheme is a government initiative dedicated to kick-starting new businesses through low-cost loans and mentoring. LDBG delivers the scheme throughout the south of England.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .