Gary Usher smashes £200k crowdfund within 24 hours

The Elite Bistros owner announced plans for the new Kickstarter campaign last week, following the failure of his recent equity crowdfund​​, with the funds intended to support the refurbishment and opening of his group's first pub site in Churton​​, Cheshire.

The Kickstarter​​ launched at 10pm on Tuesday (1 November), and by 9:20pm on Wednesday (2 November) had passed its £200,000 target, with four days still left to run on the campaign.

At the time of writing, £210,753 had been pledged from 1,214 backers.

"Not sure what to say," Usher wrote on Twitter last night.

"Thank you, thank you for picking us back up. Thank you to the local community in Churton. Thank you to all the teams in Elite and thank you to our community… you lot.

"I messed up in business this year and you lot gave us the opportunity here to put it right."

Usher, whose restaurants are concentrated in the North West of England, is a pioneer of the crowdfunding model within hospitality, with most of his finance coming from supporters effectively buying their meals in advance.

Earlier this year, however, he announced plans to launch his first-ever equity crowdfund​​, via Seedrs, which would aim to raise £750,000 to support the opening of the refurbishment of The White Horse pub in Churton, including the building of B&B bedrooms; as well as the development of a new concept called Joya Tapas​​; and further development of its first product line for retail and commercial sales.

Last week, though, Usher said those plans had been put on hold after the equity crowdfund 'failed'.

"I'm really sorry that I've let everyone down with the Seedrs," Usher said at the time. "But I need to react and I need to crack on, so I'm going to stick to what I know. Next week I'm going to launch a Kickstarter for £200,000 and if we achieve it that is what I will use to refurb the pub.

"So all the plans for B&B bedrooms and stuff, we'll have to put on hold. Love to do it in the future, but what we have to do first is just get the pub open, which we're all ridiculously excited about, and just carry on."