AN ENTREPRENEUR from York who is behind the UK’s fastest growing juice drink company, has landed a six-figure investment to help it become a £100 million business within ten years.

Martin Hall, from York and his partner John Heseltine, from Middlesbrough have secured £600,000 funding from Clydesdale Bank to expand Cherrygood.

The Clydesdale Bank backing comes just months after the owners had launched an outspoken attack on the country’s banks.

The two men had previously blamed a lack of support from most of the high street banks for holding up their rate of growth and worldwide expansion plans.

Now, with Clydesdale Bank’s cash injection, the company plans to build on its first year turnover of £1.2 million, with aggressive growth planned for the UK, Europe, Middle East and the US.

Cherrygood is listed in supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons, and it plans to increase UK sales to more than £10 million within five years.

Through its Investing for Growth initiative, which enables well-performing UK trading companies to take advantage of expansion opportunities, Clydesdale Bank will support Cherrygood with an Enterprise Finance Guarantee loan, as well as invoice discounting to aid cash flow.

Paul Debney, business partner at Clydesdale Bank, said: “Having been approached by the team at Cherrygood, and hearing that they had hit problems in their efforts to secure finance, we quickly sat down with John and Martin, to see whether through our Investing for Growth initiative we could help.

“It was immediately obvious that they knew the market, had a clear and shared vision, robust business plan and real drive and determination to become a major player in the juice drink market. They have ambitious plans and 2011 will see them bring a number of new products to market and I’m sure will see them achieve significant growth.”

The inspiration for Cherrygood came while Mr Heseltine lived in the US. Having studied at Harvard he spent time holidaying in the “cherry belt” in Michigan, from where he now sources his Montmorency cherries.

Mr Hall had previously created and sold Lovejuice, a natural fruit juice retail chain, for £3.4 million.

He said: “We are the fastest growing new juice drink on the market set against a backdrop of decline in the juice and smoothies market which has seen sales plummet by £114 million in the past two years.

“Ocean Spray has successfully built a billion pound global brand based on a single fruit, and given that cherries arguably taste better and are better for you, then I see no reason why we can’t achieve £100 million turnover within ten years.”