Got a sustainable food, farming or business idea? Pitch Up! for land, investment and expertise at Kingsclere Estates circular community.

**The 2024 applications season runs from 1–30 November**

Thinking of applying in 2024? Download your applications guidance pack to find out more about what's involved.

2024 sees Pitch Up! triple in size, with six farms across the UK – from Scotland to Cornwall – joining the stable for this year's applications season.

Find out more on pitchupandgrow.com and over on our new Pitch Up! Substack, as well as Kingsclere Estates Instagram and the new Pitch Up! Instagram account. Please spread the word to anyone you know who might be interested!

“Pitch Up! is perfect for people who have an idea, but need help to make it happen. The Kingsclere team has really helped bring Monch to life, and it’s grown bigger, better and faster than we ever thought.”
_{Daisy and Dan, Monch founders and winners of Pitch Up! 2021}

Read on to discover the Pitch Up! opportunity at Kingsclere

“In nature there is no concept of waste.
Everything is food for something else.”
_{Ellen MacArthur Foundation on regenerative natural systems}

After four generations of conventional farming, Kingsclere Estates is heading in a bold new direction. We’re turning our backs on commodity agriculture to regenerate our environment and build a progressive ‘circular community’.

And we’re looking for like-minded people with innovative sustainable business ideas to join us.

Why?

For the last decade, we’ve been busy regenerating the estate’s soil, increasing biodiversity and adopting a renewed approach to stewardship of the land to secure full Organic status for the crops, dairy and eggs produced here.

Disrupting the norms of commodity farming production cycles through innovative mobile approaches – such as The Roaming Dairy and Rolling Eggs – we and our partners on the estate are already seeing the benefits of thinking differently, creating flexible infrastructures that can move across the land to improve both soil fertility and the quality of our produce as they go.

Now we want to invite more people in and increase the positive impacts – and abundant opportunities – of this approach.

Through Pitch Up! we’re on the lookout for more environmentally-focused partners to come and make the most of the estate’s plentiful space, fertile land and inspiring ethos.

We’ve been blown away by the interest in – and breadth of entries for – our first three Pitch Up! applications seasons in 2021, 2022 and 2023. From radio and TV coverage to entries spanning everything from a cheesemaker to a shoe brand, turkeys to natural soaps, foraging to firewood to oat milk, the possibilities and appetite for innovative, sustainable mixed land use in our circular community are really exciting. Now the word is spreading even further, we can’t wait to see what this year’s Pitch Up! brings.

What?

We’re offering businesses and start-ups selected through Pitch Up! a wide mix of support, including:

• Land – pasture, fields and woodland – on our 2,000+ acre estate in Hampshire
• Industrial units and office space
• Raw ingredients, by-products and waste from farmers, growers and producers in our community to use for your products
• Low overheads
• Shared running costs
• Minimised risk
• Shared workload
• Business advice, support and shared industry knowledge
• Administrative and accounting services
• Marketing and design support, with media and press opportunities
• Introductions to customers, industry stakeholders and investors
• Roadside retail opportunities, with 17,500 cars per day passing Kingsclere’s 2-mile frontage on the A339
• A closely connected community of like-minded businesses for sharing ideas, problem-solving, connections and collaboration

Who?

We’re looking for innovative ideas, good business sense and people with shared values, who we know we’ll be glad to have around.

We imagine the majority of you will be businesses or commercial-ready start-ups in the agriculture, food and beverage, and environmental sectors – but we don’t want to limit it to that.

We’re also open to hearing from people with ideas in the leisure and tourism, wellbeing, skincare and textiles/ fashion sectors – and beyond. Essentially it’s about your commitment to circular economy thinking and positive environmental impact.

Successful Pitch Up! applicants will show:

• A compelling business/ product proposition
• An understanding of the Kingsclere vision, and a passion to play a part in bringing it to life
• Good business sense and financial acumen
• Consideration for how your business would feed into the whole estate system at Kingsclere – not just thrive on its own
• Willingness to adapt to flexible infrastructures that could be mobile, moving across different parts the estate at different times

How?

Pitch Up! applications seasons run every year from 1 – 30 November. To register your interest and receive updates, email pitchup@kingsclere-estates.co.uk or follow us on Instagram.