Today's guest is Karen Knowles of Bon Accord Soft Drinks. We often have many of our customers tell us they are surprised that we are such a young brand - they tell us there is something incredibly traditional about our honey and our brand that makes it feel like we’ve been around for generations. Karen from Bon Accord often gets the same comment, but in her case it’s true. Bon Accord was a drinks company originally run by her grandfather and before that, her great grandfather. For years it lay dormant and it has only risen back into prominence since Karen’s take over in 2015. Along with her business partner Nathan she’s managed to rejuvenate the brand and bring the company back to life in a way that suits the consumers of today.

Bon accord is based in Edinburgh like The Scottish Bee Company, but it’s name is known all across Scotland and beyond. The business has been thriving, growing into a household name since it’s appearance on the shelves of Aldi.

I met Karen at a food festival years ago and I love talking to her - in fact she was right at the top of my list when we started to talk about making a podcast. She perfectly epitomises the community values of the Food and Drinks industry (which we will talk about further in the podcast) - sharing knowledge, authenticity and a genuine support for one another.

Her experiences mirrors a lot of my own having encountered many of the issues I have working in our sector and navigating the pandemic. We discuss in detail the importance of marketing; how you can get everything right with a product, but if you don’t have the right branding and packaging that reflects the product, and - most importantly - people who specialise in marketing to take your idea and run with it, then you’ll go nowhere pretty fast.

We bond over all things Scottish as well as the pros and cons of running a heritage brand. She’s an all round pretty together person with some great nuggets of wisdom to share. Take a listen - I know you’re going to get something from what’s he has to say.

Karen has also offered 10% off, head to her website www.bonaccordsoftdrinks.com, code BEE10