Helping Yumi Nutrition to boost growth with R&D tax relief
Published 5 November 2020
When Sebastien Vanderlinden launched Yumi Nutrition alongside Adam Barker in 2017, he had heard of R&D tax relief. But he didn’t know what he could claim for. He also didn’t know if the business was eligible as he wasn’t sure if R&D tax relief for science was a realistic possibility. Roll forward three years and the SME has managed to make an impressive R&D tax relief claim. How, you ask? All it took was a little bit of encouragement and heaps of support from the Recoup team. Keep reading to find out more.
Who is Yumi Nutrition?
Yumi Nutrition is one of the UK’s fastest-growing chewable vitamin companies based in Manchester. Its Co-Founders Sebastien Vanderlinden and Adam Barker built the company to provide essential vitamins and supplements that were easy and tasty to consume – something they felt the nutrition industry lacked.
Over the past three years, the company has grown from strength to strength, securing deals with leading industry brands such as Holland and Barrett.
Undertaking exciting innovations
Yumi Nutrition has recently been working on formulas for chewable vitamins which aren’t predominantly available in the nutrition market.
Sebastien shared with us that a huge part of working with niche formulas is collaborating with a research and development team. R&D experts helped Yumi Nutrition:
Develop the formulas
Test the taste and effectiveness
Get feedback from the market
Promote and market the product.
What Sebastien and his colleagues didn’t know was that these advancements made their business eligible for R&D tax relief.
As Sebastien put it, “We knew the incentive was there to invest in science and technology. But it was never a part of our business strategy because we didn’t know if we could qualify for an R&D tax relief for science innovation. We also didn’t know exactly what we could claim for.”
From friend to R&D tax relief confidant
Joe Averill, Director and Chief Revenue Officer at Recoup Capital, is a good friend of Sebastien Vanderlinden at Yumi Nutrition. A few months ago, they sparked an informal chat surrounding R&D tax relief.
As Sebastien explained, “Joe reassured me that the process would be easy and that we’d only need to invest in support if our business turned out to be eligible. I felt really confident that we had everything to gain from taking this step forward and nothing to lose.”
An effortless process from beginning to end
Sebastien’s main concern surrounding claiming R&D tax credits was how long the process would take and whether it was worth his time and energy. As a busy business owner, he didn’t want to go through a long and arduous process for nothing.
Joe eliminated these fears from day one. He explained how Sebastien’s input would be minimal and proved this through proactive action.
As Sebastien explained, “Recoup supported us throughout the entire claim process. He helped us prepare for our first call with the accountant, letting us know what to expect to make the experience as easy as possible.
“All we had to do was get the right documents together, send them to the chartered R&D tax advisor and answer a few questions surrounding our qualifying points.”
“From there, Recoup took over communications with HMRC and handled the rest of the application process. In the end, I only needed to dedicate two hours of my time.” Due to Recoup Capital’s extensive experience in R&D tax relief for science innovations, the process was much easier than anticipated.
Faster and better results than expected
Sebastien thought that the claims process, from having the initial meeting with Joe to getting the funds in, would take nine to twelve weeks.
In reality, the claim had gone through by week eight, since the government is trying to get as much money back into businesses as quickly as possible due to the pandemic, we’ve seen payments being made between two and four weeks.
Sebastien and his colleagues were beyond thrilled with the results: “At the most, we thought we might get a couple of thousand in funds. We never imagined that the final figure would be so substantial.”
Reinvesting in their future
The total R&D tax rebate was enough to make a real difference to their business, enabling Yumi Nutrition to reinvest in stock and new formulas.
Now the company is firmly on a path towards rapid growth. For example, it’s currently hiring for three new roles within customer service and marketing, pushing not only the business forward but the UK economy by injecting jobs into the nutrition market.
What’s more, they can confidently build R&D tax relief for science into their future business plan, unlocking more opportunities to work on exciting products. And by working with Recoup on their R&D strategy, they can ensure they’ll never miss out on claiming tax relief again.
It’s also important to note that, as Yumi Nutrition’s turnover increases, they’ll be able to claim back larger amounts of R&D tax relief (the typical R&D company can reclaim up to 33% of qualifying expenditure).
Final thoughts on the Recoup experience
If Sebastien could summarise his experience working with Recoup, he’d say it was: “Easy and flawless. There’s no risk, it’s a win-win situation.”
He continues: “The service you get is incredibly personal. Recoup is a company full of people you like and want to do business with. Their interpersonal skills are unrivalled.”
When asked if he would recommend Recoup to other businesses, he said: “Absolutely. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. Just like us, you could go from zero to claiming a substantial amount of money.”