James Middleton bought a £1.45 million home in Bucklebury last year, just months before he sold his failing marshmallow company at a huge loss. Boomf was always losing money, and over the course of eight years, James lost millions of dollars in investment through mismanagement and sh-tty ideas. His creditors were only paid back a fraction of what they put in, and the whole thing was likely some f–ked up write off for people like James Matthews. What’s worse is that not only did James purchase the £1.45 million home close to mummy as Boomf was losing money hand over fist, he also started a brand new business which sucked up all of his time, effort and attention. That’s why he let Boomf go, because he had already moved on to his next big idea: raw dog food. Unsurprisingly, that company is having investment issues too.
Undeterred by the struggles of his marshmallow firm, which went bust before Christmas owing creditors £800,000, James Middleton set up a business for the ‘happiness and wellbeing’ of dogs. The Duchess of Cambridge’s brother said he’d been inspired to form it by his therapist. Sadly, Ella & Co, the project named after his spaniel, is apparently struggling to get off the ground.
The enterprise, which sells posh food for pets, is managed by the company Hello Ella Ltd, and Middleton is the sole director. I can reveal that the business has amassed trading losses of £413,527, up from £169,674 the previous year. In an echo of Boomf, his insolvent marshmallow firm, losses at Hello Ella have been offset with significant capital injections from investors. According to financial statements signed off by Middleton this week, the company raised a further £338,116 in investments during the year covered by the accounts to the end of April 2021, meaning investors have now put in a total of £748,116.
‘The director has considered the financial position of the company, both during the period and as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and has assessed both financial and operational risk,’ a note in the accounts says. ‘He is of the opinion that the company has sufficient financial resources to continue to operate as a going concern.’
Entrepreneur James has six dogs and has credited them with helping him through his struggle with depression. Shareholders include James Matthews, the husband of James’s sister Pippa.
Middleton declines to comment but an associate tells me: ‘The business is actually doing really well. Like any start-up, there are big fixed costs at the beginning, and future accounts will paint a more positive picture.’
How do you think that investment meeting went between Terribly Moderately Wealthy James Matthews and his brother-in-law? And how in the world does James Middleton continue to convince investors to throw good money after bad? I’ve believed this for years: someone needs to sit James down and tell him that he simply cannot run his own company, that being a “businessman” is not for him, that he doesn’t have what it takes. He’s driven THREE businesses into the ground through mismanagement, he’s lost millions of dollars and he’s not even 40 years old! And here’s another thought: poor Alizee. She’s apparently got some kind of financial job and she possibly brings in a nice income. How much of HER money is being used to prop up her husband’s asinine business adventures? James is like the Gob Bluth of the Middletons. BEES?
Photos courtesy of Instagram, Avalon Red.
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- James Middleton at the GQ Men of the Year Awards, Arrivals, Tate Modern, London, UK,Image: 537047182, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: James Shaw / Avalon
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- Princess Beatrice of York during day one of Royal Ascot at Ascot Racecourse. Featuring: Princess Beatrice of York Where: Ascot, Berkshire, United Kingdom When: 18 Jun 2019 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/WENN.com **Not available for publication in The Netherlands**
Look at him playing the country squire 😂😂😂😂
Luckily for him, if this goes bust, he can be the new park ranger at PippaTips Play Park 🙃
And his wife is wearing overalls!
This is not surprising news. He’s not been trained to do much. At least the royal connections seem to attract the funding for his vanity projects.
But the dog is cute.
(eta: dogs? Six dogs is a lot of attention to give.)
My guess is that none of the wife’s money goes into this. That James is a scammer, splashing other people’s money just like his parents. James is not special or hard working. All these ventures have the vibe of a little boy playing pretend.
Yea, they are not losing their own money, just other peoples. Gross. Alizee would be smart to keep everything separate for now.
All of his companies are based on product lines that don’t scale. I don’t know how he expects them to make any money.
I just don’t understand why he is trying to scale anything. He needs to succeed at selling his treats locally or just in the UK, then build from there. I doesn’t make any sense why this would be losing this much money at such an early stage. Someone needs to check the finances.
The last thing a small business does is scale. He’s never had a business, he’s had poorly executed ideas. His progress is at least consistent in its guaranteed business failure. He’s on his way to being to what horse betting calls a trifecta. As I wrote yesterday, these single bet businesses, should have been one business called the village bakery. The dog pellets – on visual display – could have been a launched as a special, aka test product, dog biscuits with the clients of the bakery. The bakeshop is the business and the test kitchen to see what catches and sells. He has no skill set which one acquires by studying and working.
No sane person throws good money after bad, unless that is the business. At this point, Terribly Moderately Wealthy James, and the Middletons should give Knick Knack Paddy Wack James a bone called a yearly allowance to play with.
I heart Kaiser.
Shouldn’t that be ‘losing money hand over paw’?
My ex was *exactly* the same. One failed business after another, due to his having no idea what running a business – any business – actually entailed. His poor mother (his faithful repeat investor) lost so much money over the years. Glad to be out of that mess!
we were probably married to the same guy. this was many moons ago, and my ex always had great ideas but it was one failure after another, with my money going down the drain. A complete user and loser. I finally got the strength to leave with $100 in the bank and built it back on my own. happily married now without those issues to deal with.
Lol came here to say the same but you already said it better. Like James my ex is mama’s special boy, too precious to take a job, so he plays at being an entrepreneur. Pretty sure mama’s still paying his way — not a great look for a 50 yo 🙄
And good for you, RoyalBlue. It must have been really scary with so little money but you got away from him. Well done!
The dog food doesn’t look appetizing even for dog food, it looks like gigantic litter tray pellets.
Those treats look as dry as my rabbits poop.
When I first saw the pic, I thought he was showing how the dog’s poop looks after. Also, I have three dogs so I’m really familiar with all the new raw food and special food brands. None of them look like this. Hard, dry and unappetizing.
He needs to either become a fulltime influencer with an online presence in order to shill his products and maybe get this company off the ground, or get a job. Any job.
His wife must really love him and have great amount of self esteem….
Pictures look like she’s quite enamored. Let’s see what they look like in 2-3 years.
So James Middleton is a scam artist right? He’s a thief and he’s allowed to do so in plain sight. Amazing.
Many ‘rich’ people do this. It’s a special club.
Maybe they are part of the Trump family tree?
Well colour me surprised – said no one ever!
He’s a business genius in the same mold as Trump – everything he touches goes to sh!t.
TBH he’s another trying to be like the aristo’s and failing badly – setting up a small niche business etc.. However, most of the aristo’s who do it are actually quite successful at it.
Like his sisters he has spent his life being propped up by others and will continue to find people to continue that cycle.
Yes. It’s astounding to me that not one of the Middleton kids has ever held a proper job, especially since Carole was portrayed as being such a hardworking businesswoman. I wondered how the kids could be so different from their mother until I realized they aren’t. They’re all basically shameless promoters of their own images & their “jobs” are barely plausible businesses that suck up other people’s money. I guess it sort of makes Kate a perfect fit for the Windsors.
Yes! They’re like a version of the Kardashians that tried to get famous by being more posh!
Because the Middleton children were raised to be like aristocrats–or Carole’s fantasies of what the toffs did. She set up Kate and Pippa to scale the social ladder and then introduce some posh girl to James, and he’d go live in her family castle. Pippa struck out because she overplayed her hand after the Cambridge wedding, and James is just as dull and thick as his siblings. Carole should have remembered that an aristocratic man can be as unappealing as he likes–his title and/or connections make up for it. A social climbing man has to be extraordinary.
@Gigi, they were raised to behave like toffs, but they market themselves as if they are the “hard working middle-class.” That dissonance in the messaging vs. the reality is precisely why the Midds are sniped at abt their work history. Middle-class people “work a trade” for a living. They don’t lounge about in glorified laziness, living off of trust funds and their parents’/estates’ money. They don’t get allowances that the aristocrats do in this regard.
When the children of aristocrats and those descended from aristocrats open up niche businesses like selling grass-fed coconut oil, or designer hamster breeding, people roll their eyes and smirk and let it slide bc such useless endeavours are typical of the overly-rich aristocracy, who don’t do anything useful.
When you make your daughter’s entire selling point as a potential royal bride to be the fact that she’s a nice, lovely, down-to-earth, “middle-class” girl, who can be expected to “work hard” and “know what it’s like for the common person in Britain”, people are naturally going to question when this isn’t the case. Ma Midds would have been better served if she hadn’t dug herself into this particular hole, PR wise, but hindsight is always 20/20.
Didn’t the mom, CarolE, basically do the same as her kids, marry up to someone with more money? Didn’t her husband have some money left to him by some distant aristo relation? So probably in her mind, her kids are wildly successful.
Carole still had an actual job at one point though when she was a flight attendant. Kate, Pippa and James have never held down jobs for any significant period of time. As excellently explained by A, you can’t sell kate as a middle class relatable girl next door when she’s never had a real job by age 29. And kate changing her accent to be super posh along with her snobbery just blows away that image for all but the blindest sycophants.
With the aristos, most of their customers are their family and social circle (friends, friends of friends etc etc) so even if they aren’t brilliant at running a business, they at least have a steady stream of people who are willing to buy their stuff. James doesn’t have that (I’m assuming) because the aristos don’t like him so he can’t get them to open their pockets to support him. I’m not sure what the finances of his social circle looks like but he either doesn’t have a financially stable circle or his friends aren’t rich enough to throw money at him to keep his successful or none of his friends *want* to do that.
Hope ole girl’s finances are separate and protected somehow.
Why doesn’t Uncle Gary come to the rescue? Just curious 🤔🧐
No Kaiser, no poor Alizee, if she being in finance as a career, still chooses to throw her money down the toilet with her husband dumb as F business, then that’s on her. She could say, I love you but for the sake of our marriage and our future, let’s keep financial couplings uncoupled.
Maybe terribly moderate James pays his fees for marrying pippa to Carole by investing in brother James nonsense.
And she might said that. For all that we know she might have purchased the house, without Middleton assistance.
Most business owners keep their personal and business finances separate. It ensures that if the business goes under, you won’t lose everything. From the news reports it seems like James has gotten good financial advice somewhere on maintaining that legal separation.
I think as a premise expensive dog food seems like a better idea than custom marshmallows, but a better premise doesn’t make up for ineptitude at running a business.
I do think its interesting he’s not just running Party Pieces. It seems to me, in theory at least, that would give him solid business experience and he could eventually take over the business from his parents.
Is it because he doesn’t want to just take over PP? Is it because he hasn’t been offered the role because his parents don’t think he could do it? or is it because there is nothing to ” take over”?
Maybe all of those reasons. The Middletons remind me of town fronts from Old West television shows back in the olden days–just plywood and paint.
Alize better have an iron clad pre-nup.
I feel ever so slightly sorry for James. Slightly, as in more than I would for any other constantly failing upward privileged upper middle class white guy, which is not sorry at all. It must be difficult to have all of his educational and mental health issues and be in the public eye because of the actions of his sisters and mothers, whether he likes it or not. But unlike the vast majority of people with similar issues, he seems to be surrounded by people who enable him and are willing to provide him with a never-ending stream of support, opportunities and money. Anything to keep him busy and under the radar I suppose. And I do wonder if he’s trying to cash in on the Deliciously Ella brand by using that name – I know it’s named after his dog, but in the UK, if you hear the name Ella in conjunction with health and Wellness, you think of Ella Mills and her company, so that’s a bit grifty.
Yeah right, like the guy with the £800,000 Nazi marshmallow is broke. COME ON
At some point, someone will look into his ventures to see if money laundering is involved. He can’t be that fortunate to keep finding investors with his track record right??
Exactly this. To me, these articles read exactly like the ones saying Trump is a failure because he declared bankruptcy and his businesses “lost money” – those businesses are operating exactly as designed. James’ wife working in the finance sector is also a red flag IMO; she’s not humoring an inept businessman as some have suggested here, she has financial know-how that would be useful to grow someone’s not-so-savory business while making it all look above board to the casual audit. It’s all super shady.
I thinking that this could be a great business and a very profitable one as well but James really needs to bring in someone to run the business while he acts as the face of the business. I can only imagine that his investors, especially his BIL, have brought this up so I wonder if it’s ego or what exactly that is preventing James from doing what needs to be done to make this business a success. Also, I wonder if the house is in his wife’s name as I imagine she’s the one who has some money saved.
Q: Why all these anti James hit pieces? Is the blush off the Middleton rose – maybe to distance the RF from them?
The RR’s need a target since the Sussex’s left town. He’s the easiest. I think it’s called low hanging fruit.
It’s odd that part of the food packaging says “handmade in the UK”—like, ummm, the food is dead chopped up animals, so the “handmade” part just brings to mind some poor underpaid slaughterhouse workers having to defeather and eviscerate chicken carcasses.
Which, if you think about it, is truly stupid when so many, many dogs are allergic to chicken protein…..
Yeah that’s gross and awful. Giving dogs raw meat is… well, I can’t do it. I feel so bad for the little animals being raised in terrible conditions only to be brutally killed.
(I don’t consume any animal products myself either.)
Most small businesses don’t make a profit for at least the first two years so I don’t think there should be any cause for alarm. But if the business does fail, he’ll probably help out Pippa who reportedly bought some old farm in Buckleberry to start a play park for children.
I’m actually learning more about James Middleton in the past couple posts here about him and his string of failed businesses than I ever knew before. Honestly, it makes me uncomfortable to read about irl. It all feels like a patten that’s very familiar to me personally- the mental health issues combined with the delusional ambition to make something super niche like fancy custom marshmallows or posh raw dog treats into this huge successful business out of absolutely nothing but an idea, with no real life business sense or experience entering into the equation at all- I know someone who doesn’t have the benefit of James’s connections and wealthy family and friends, and so instead of a string of just embarrassing failed businesses that don’t really effect his life, he met a string of bankruptcy and permanent loss of credit, but the pattern is exactly the same, and it stemmed from bipolar disorder, and he absolutely refused to listen to anything other than whatever enabled his ideas, not hard, real advice or anything. After his wife died, any semblance of a rein was off, and in order to finance his ambitions, he blew through everything she left in weeks, mortgaged their paid off house thinking his latest “business” scheme would easily make him a millionaire, basically he lost literally everything.
I don’t know James’s exact mental health state other than the publicly admitted depression, but I don’t think anyone in his life, from his parents to his brother-in-law to whoever else is investing in his schemes, is doing him any favors at all. That’s where my mind goes when I read stories like this anyway, not immediately to “obvious money laundering scheme”, like most other commenters here. My view is probably colored by personal experience though.
I hear you… He has delusions of grandeur at the very least, and people around him are not doing him a favour by enabling him. Just get those royal connections to find him a prestigious sounding job where he doesn’t have to actually do anything, just show up to a swanky office and talk at a long suffering assistant. It’s sad that he’s not as sporty as his sisters, a career as a middling/failed/retired golfer/rally pilot/whatever would have suited him better.
I see his self-inflicted drama as example of how corruptible people are. A spoiled man whose parents engineered a world and life that has been dependent on the financial support of others of questionable intent and morals (Uncle Gary G), then his sister propels the family into a sphere of attention, wealth and influence that has finished wrecking their psyche. He was doomed never to be satisfied with a 9-5, average salary, middle class life and home. Pile on top that there is considerable grift and shenanigans constantly swirling. I believe there is probably some form of criminal activity going on here. There is NO way that family has legit money from any of their financial activities to fund their lifestyle, royal connections or not. Hell most of the wealth in that upper class cesspool is illegitimate, going back to the Middle Ages! But back to the topic at hand. James’ vanity projects are doomed to fail, yet how long james’ is willing to put up being the face of failure, we’ll see. This is like The Crown meets Ozark and Succession… all that delicious family drama!
Have you watched The Other Boleyn Girl? His situation sounds exactly like Anne’s brother, here’s hoping it doesn’t end similarly
The cake mixes for rich people and boomf were not good ideas. Raw dog food isn’t a terrible idea. So, if he’s literally just the face than it’s not necessarily as doomed to failure as his other ventures. Then again, I’ve always wondered if his other ventures were some kind of money laundering/ tax scheme or buying access to William or something. Would explain why they were kept afloat so long.
I doubt investors keep investing in his business because they have faith in him or whatever, they’re investing because he’s the brother-in-law of the future future King. Being chummy with James means you could try and weasel yourself a meeting with the royals or whatever if that’s what you wanted.
As for this latest venture, I do think dog food is a bigger/better market than printed marshmallows but considering he’s had 3 consecutive failures, I’m not hedging any bets on it.
Geez. What an odd life, where your primary worth is based on being the BIL of the ffk.
IIRC, the big power the Royal Family has is connections and anyone who dares to piss them off is denied access or completely cut off. And if you are “in favor” you use your connection to RF in every way possible. Photos of you and any near RF member = snobs who make money together.
Diana was so stunningly beautiful and looked like a fairytale princess.
IMO, her charm and beauty gave the BRF a good solid boost that they never truly deserved.
And the RR used everything good and bad to keep the stories coming for decades.
The BRF is a living soap opera. And huge tourist attraction that provides jobs, somebody has to keep all those properties clean and tidy.
When I see articles like this, I am more content with my “regular” life.
If James is not involved in some kind of money laundering with these 3 failed biz, why not just give him $500K and tell him to go raise dogs or be a retired gardener?
Something crooked goes on here.
How utterly unsurprising. The guy is not a business man. He doesn’t have the acumen to run a business. At this point, I’m wondering why any legit investor would give him money. Is it an money laundering enterprise?
Those dog treats look hard and unappealing. Why would any business put those out as content?
Money laundering?
this
Would William be involved in any of this on the sly. He seems like the type to want to win over the meddlingtons and be the princely bil and save their family.
Healthy, organic, raw ect. animal food is actually huge at the moment, the idea with his visibility is good, but why so many losses?
Get a vet to create a bespoke reciept and a testimonial, an experienced producer who does private label to order, a CFO who knoes how to crunch the numbers and start online, maybe stock at selected waitroses if his sisters conection is still working. The biggest hurdle, if your product is of good quality, is marketing and access to the big retailers and that shouldn´t be his problem.
But getting professionals on board and utilize their knowledge does not seem to be the Middletons strenght.
How someone with so many failed business can even afford to buy a million £ home? This is similar to CarolE being a millionaire thanks to party pieces whatever her business is called. Is so unbelievable. The way this family has been allowed to climb all the way up with the taxpayers money.
I just hope the dog food doesn’t kill dogs. Low expectations? The RF and adjacents teach you to keep your expectations VERY low. So in RF terms, he’s a success? Yes, indeed, much like his sis-in-law Kate.
I actually feel sorry for James. As the baby of the family he has been coddled, enabled and made excuses for. What will become of him when those enablers pass away? Too late then to expect him to act like a grown up and stand on his own and get a real job. Poor Alizee; is she a wife or mummy substitute with a paycheck? This will not end well I fear.
Can someone tell me about about Pippa play park I have seen it referenced here . Is that the farm across the way from Carole ?
I wonder what the “investors” think about his new 1.5Milion mansion🤔
This dude never worked 9-5 job in his life and has been living off of parents,relatives..et all his life so I can’t say I’m suprised about his continuing string of failed businesses! I’m more suprised that he keeps getting funding because if you look at this he’s not losing his own money its the investors !
That said I’m ever more curious about CarolJenner’s PP company finances🤔how the hell is that company still in operation when all they offer is basic content/site, cheap made in China plastic materials..et, no wonder they quickly changed it to a private LC to avoide disclosing their finances right after Katy married in! I’m almost certain both W&K or kkkate is funneling in money to keep it afloat. Because remember the sussexs breaking away from KP was said to be mainly due to conflict about money(where willy even attempted to use profits from Meghan’s book).