THIS budding businessman wants to create a world of pure confectionery imagination in Cleethorpes – but he needs your help to do it.
Matthew Greenacre has turned to a novel technique called "crowd funding" to try to raise enough money to make his sweet shop dreams a reality.
Crowd funding works by people donating between £5 and £100 towards the start-up of the new business in exchange for various rewards, such as T-shirts, sweets and champagne.
The 23-year-old, from Grimsby, explained: "I've spent the last six months managing an American sweet shop in Sheffield and it was so successful there that it prompted me to start thinking about opening my own in Cleethorpes.
"I'm putting my own money into setting it up, but I've been turned down for funding, which has made it difficult.
"Crowd funding is widely used in other places – some game developers raised £4 million for a new game they couldn't get other funding for."
Matthew, who hopes to collect £1,500 from crowd funding to contribute to the £5,000 the shop will cost to set up, has already found his perfect premises, an empty unit opposite O'Neill's.
He added: "I'm going to put an offer in during the next week and hopefully by that time I will have had some response from the crowd funding so I can purchase plenty of stock.
"If I don't get the £1,500, then I will start out with very little on the shelves!"
Matthew, who studied journalism at the Grimsby Institute, plans to call the business Sugar Rush.
Instead of stocking traditional sweets in glass jars, he will specialise in weird and wonderful treats from overseas.
He said: "A store in Cleethorpes has the potential to do amazingly well because there is a lot of tourist trade."
Now all Matthew needs to make his dreams a reality are donations on Indiegogo, a crowd funding platform.
He added: "I know it might seem strange asking for money, but I am passionate about my idea. I want to be the Willy Wonka of Grimsby and Cleethorpes!"
Visit http://igg.me/at/sugar-rush- sweets
