A company planning to turn milk into a designer drink has raised £259,000 through a public share issue.

This on the the advice from the Brighton office of accountancy group, Hacker Young.

The company, Branded Drinks, of Sutton, Surrey, launched the new look milk last week.

It hopes to position it as an alternative to fizzy drinks and favourites such as Ribena and Sunny Delight.

The drink is available in 250ml bottles with screw-top lids and will be known as M.

Branded Drinks plans to sell it in Supermarkets, corner shops, food and coffee bars rather than among the dairy goods.

Finance director Renwick Haddow said: "The idea behind M is simple. We wanted to make milk easier to drink for people on the go and children. The pint carton is simply not practical.

"We worked with Hacker Young in Brighton before and we are impressed with the way they helped us raise this much needed capital."

Richard Simmons, partner at Hacker Young, said: "Though the M concept is very simple, a lot of clever work has gone into packaging, price and location availability.

"Branded Drinks want to do to milk what Perrier and Evian did to water in the Eighties."