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Ready-made meal delivery group Parsley Box reported a deeper first-half loss, as the young company incurred higher marketing and staffing expenses.
Pre-tax losses for the six months through June amounted to £5.4 million, compared to year-on-year losses of £1.0 million, and included costs of £1.1 million associated with its March IPO.
Revenue rose 26% to £14.0 million and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, before exceptional items, amounted to a loss of £3.6 million.
Parsley Box, which targets the Baby Boomer-plus market, said it spent £1.2 million on TV advertising campaign to build brand awareness.
Net cash at period end was £6.52 million.
Looking forward, it said a higher price point and new product range was expected to deliver further growth in the second half.
'We have been successful in strengthening our team in the critical areas of innovation and IT positioning us well to deliver our goals in 2021 and beyond,' chief executive Kevin Dorren said.
'The initial results of the investment in product innovation have been encouraging with the trial of chilled ready meals delivering an increase in customer basket size and lower new customer recruitment costs compared to our purely ambient offering.'