The announcement of Northern Pasta Co.’s new chapter of growth follows its appearance on BBC’s Dragon’s Den last night (17 September 2026) in which founders Imogen Royall and Matt Kenyon secured a joint offer of £50,000 for 10% of the business from Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden.
Established in 2022, the British spelt pasta brand started out as a humble market stall operation in the North of England, producing around 1.6 tonnes of pasta annually. Fast forward to 2026 and the business has scaled significantly - at the start of the year, weekly production reached 2.25 tonnes. Since then, growth has continued, with Northern Pasta Co. now producing 13.5 tonnes a week – a sixfold increase since January 2026.
The Northern Pasta Co. is now on track to break the £1 million turnover mark this year, with plans to further scale its operation over the next three.
The expansion centres on a new 12,000 sq ft site in Carnforth, Lancashire which has seen a major facelift over the last 12 months. The factory team has grown from four to ten employees, and funding has been invested directly into new machinery and skills. Once at full capacity, the business will have increased by tenfold; able to produce in a single day what once took the best part of two years.
Alongside investment into the factory floor, the business has also appointed to new senior team members.
Grace Chau joins from Merchant Gourmet where she served for five years, most recently as senior brand and innovation manager.
Matt Young is also among the hires and joins as head of sales. He brings nine years’ experience scaling challenger brands, most recently as national account controller at The Jolly Hog.
Commenting on the news, co-founder Royall said: “We’re on a mission to make the best pasta in the world, and we’ve just built the home to do it in. What took us a whole year on the market stall, we now make in a week – and soon, we’ll make in a single day what once took us the best part of two years. This is pasta made slowly, by people who take it seriously.”
