A NORTH Yorkshire healthy eating brand which opened its first site in York in 2012 is set to expand after surpassing targets in its crowd-funding campaign.

Filmore & Union, which has cafes and restaurants in Low Petergate and York Train Station, is now extending its crowd-funding campaign for a further 15 days after ‘overfunding’ and exceeding the target of £500,000 in under 45 days.

The company launched its crowd-funding campaign with Crowdcube in May and has raised a total of £603,490 so far from 159 investors, in return for 15.6 per cent equity in the business.

Filmore & Union has decided to extend the campaign to accelerate the group's growth which will increase the value of the company for investors and make the business more attractive to a purchaser within the timeframe covered in the business plan.

Filmore & Union was founded in 2011 by Adele Carnell, a former wellness clinic owner, and nephew Will Pugh, a Michelin trained chef, who were frustrated at the lack of healthy, unprocessed food on the high street.

They now operate at seven locations across Yorkshire with a central production unit (CPU) to maintain consistent quality and contributing to a turnover in 2014 of £3.145 million.

Director of Filmore & Union, Adele Carnell, said: "It’s been amazing to have been supported by so many people who love our food and concept and we can’t thank everyone enough for their investment and support so far.

"We’ve not only had support financially in raising our target, but we now have some new board members who are loyal customers of Filmore and will be supporting us in other ways as well as being brand ambassadors.

"We’ve decided to extend our fundraising period as we’re still getting so much interest so we want to make sure that everyone who wants to has the opportunity to invest in us."

Filmore & Union will use the money raised from the crowd-funding campaign to facilitate the launch of new eateries across the North of England.

The first new site to open will be a Filmore & Union café, restaurant and bar in Ilkley on August 3, with 56 covers, closely followed by the biggest Filmore and Union yet opening on Station Parade in Harrogate on 31 August 31, seating 130 and including a large outdoor dining area.

Filmore & Union will then open their first East Yorkshire site in the market town of Beverley early in September, seating 86 people over two floors.