A South Devon ghee manufacturer is supplying UK health food stores and drawn praise from a top Indian restaurateur, thanks to a business loan delivered by SWIG Finance.
A South Devon kitchen-table business manufacturing organic ghee has grown to supply health food stores nationwide and drawn praise from a top Indian restaurateur, as well as exporting as far afield as South Korea, thanks to support from the British Business Bank, via SWIG Finance.
Launched in 2016, Happy Butter is in the process of expanding into new premises in trendy Totnes in Devon, with an official ribbon cutting ceremony planned for Friday, June 12 in the presence of Caroline Voaden MP.
Happy Butter, a south Devon kitchen-table business manufacturing organic ghee has grown to supply health food stores nationwide
Happy Butter fans include Ravinder Bhogal of London restaurant Jikoni, who has ordered some to be used in the first meals served at her cafe at the new V&A East Museum – something company co-owner Kate Fry describes as “very exciting” – and sales are going great guns via Ocado.
Happy Butter has received £50,000 from the British Business Bank’s South West Investment Fund to convert and kit out a vegetable warehouse on an industrial estate with top-of-the-range kitchen facilities.
The South West Investment fund provides loans from £25k to £2m and equity investment up to £5m as part of its remit to diversify finance for small and medium sized businesses in the UK. SWIG Finance manages the smaller loans part of the fund.
Think ghee, and you might not imagine Indian curries and fragrant spices over the lush green fields of South Devon. And yet it was on the slopes of Dartmoor that Happy Butter was born 10 years ago as a response to Kate’s experience with health issues at the time.
Her husband, Rupert, was experimenting with diet; he’d read that polyunsaturated cooking oils could be harmful to health when used at high temperatures and, having spent part of his childhood in rural India, started making and cooking with ghee, the clarified butter popular in South Asian cuisine.
Happy Butter has received £50,000 from the British Business Bank’s South West Investment Fund to convert and kit out a vegetable warehouse on an industrial estate with top-of-the-range kitchen facilities.
“Rupert was cooking family meals with it, and the results were delicious,” Kate recalls. “We gave some to friends and were wondering if there was any commercial potential in making more.”
The couple decided early on to apply for organic certification, then approached health food stores locally, offering them a box each. Stock sold quickly and resulted in further orders. A stall at the Natural and Organic Food Show saw interest soar. Happy Butter now produces two varieties – plain and golden turmeric for UK health food shops and for export, predominantly to Ireland and South Korea.
In 2017, the business moved from the kitchen table into Buckfastleigh’s historic wool factory building. “We took one unit, and kept expanding until we had four, and couldn’t go any further,” said Kate.
Osteopath Kate and arboriculturist Rupert now work full-time with Happy Butter and have three employees with two more set to be employed in the next 12 months.
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In the ghee-making process, butter is boiled and bubbled to separate and remove water, protein and sugars to leave only the pure butter oil. “You cook with a little bit – it’s nutty with caramel notes,” Kate explains. “It’s good in a curry and other South East Asian foods, but not exclusively. You can use it in any kind of cooking – I love scrambled eggs with it, or my absolute favourite is a ramen-style broth with fish, chicken or veg.”
Butter is sourced primarily from two local organic farms feeding their cattle on good Devon grass, turning to larger butter brokers to fill the gaps. “If we could, we’d buy purely local, paying farmers direct,” says Kate. “The fat content is higher, for a start. But we need a consistent supply.”
Saturated fats are the subject of much debate, with many people cutting them out of their diet on health grounds. Kate is keen to stress her belief in the health properties of ghee is “an opinion, not a statement”.
She continues: “I’m not a nutritionist or a doctor. Our choice is not to have lots of ghee, but not to be scared of it. Similarly, regarding my health, I started eating ghee and feeling healthier, but ghee was just one thing we were doing at the time.
Osteopath Kate and arboriculturist Rupert now work full-time with Happy Butter and have three employees with two more set to be employed in the next 12 months.
“What we can say is that as a cooking fat, it’s very stable at high temperatures; it doesn’t degrade, and neither does the food. And it has proved to be a good business for us.”
The South West Investment Fund loan was delivered by SWIG Finance business manager Craig Slater. “The process was really friendly – Craig was so attentive and communicative, keeping us informed,” says Kate. “We’d managed so much investment with cashflow, but I don’t think we could have managed without the loan; at the very least, it would have taken a lot longer.”
Craig adds: “I love shopping locally and to support local small businesses, so to be able to help a local business expand, and sell more local products, has put a big smile on my face. This is an exceptionally well-managed business, one of very few that was able to get through the pandemic without having to take out a loan. With such an excellent track record, the decision to support the application was a comfortable one.”
Lizzy Upton, Senior Investment Manager at the British Business Bank, said: “Happy Butter is a great example of how a business can evolve with the right support at the right time. Having grown from a kitchen-table start-up we’re delighted the South West Investment Fund is able to support their next chapter. As the business scales, it’s creating employment, strengthening relationships with local producers and bringing a distinctive South West product to a much wider market.”
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SWIG Finance is a people-based lender that provides loans and support to help smaller businesses in the South and West Country grow. We base our lending decisions on potential rather than collateral, which means that we can often support businesses when others can't.
We’re growing every year. In 2024/25, we lent £14.8m to 501 businesses, helping to create and secure over 1,272 jobs and generate £75.7m in social impact. Download the report here.
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