Joe Fowler, Co-Founder of Smith & Brock talks tenacity and reinvention during lockdown.

In this episode we talk grocery boxes, the power of a local WhatsApp group and a mate with a van, and the importance of a Collective mindset with Joe Fowler, co-founder of extraordinary fruit and vegetable business, Smith and Brock.

Launched in 2016, but with a legacy that stretches back to their father’s market stall in Brixton from their childhood, Smith and Brock was, and still is, a premium wholesale business, selling to some of the best Michelin starred restaurants and hotels in the UK. (In case you’re wondering who the ‘Smith’ and ‘Brock’ are, that’s their respective wive’s maiden names.)

Business was booming, turnover had just hit £15m, and all was on the up for this small but perfectly formed business from South London. So when March 2020 hit and every one of their customers had to press pause, Joe and his brother Nick had to act quickly. Faced with a warehouse full of the highest quality seasonal produce in the country, they started to make up fruit and veg boxes, asked their local community who wanted to take one off their hands, and the brand Knock Knock by Smith and Brock was born.

To find out more, read their amazing Weekly Market Report  (or order a box if you’re within the M25) visit www.smithandbrock.com. To hear more about what’s in season and what you should be trying this week (and get a bit of Smith & Brock flavour outside the M25), follow them on socials @SmithandBrock.

To find out more about who we are, what we do and who we do it for at Fawnbrake, visit www.fawnbrakecollective.com

To get in touch about this podcast, please email [email protected]

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