Untold: Behind the Scenes in the UK Food & Drink Industry

In this episode we catch up with Lucy Wager about her seven year journey with Pudology.  Lucy shares her story about closing down Pudology after building distribution in the multiples all while growing a family. 

An experienced product developer turned entrepreneur, Lucy launched a first-to-market plant-based brand, Pudology in 2012 and has more recently become co-founder of free from kids brand Little Bandits.  She also supports start-ups and established Food Brands in the product development process and beyond at her consultancy business Out to Launch Ltd.  

In this episode we chat with Mark Palmer about difficult times during his career in marketing. Mark shares some fascinating insights from his time at Green & Black's during the Cadbury takeover and how he navigated through the transition period. 

Mark’s career in marketing began at United Biscuits, where he worked on promoting popular snack brands including McCoy’s and Hula Hoops. Moving on to Burger King, where he spent four years as marketing manager, Mark moved to Green & Black’s in 2001 where his role as Marketing Director took sales from £4m to £40m, and turned the brand from niche organic to premium everyday chocolate. In 2012, Mark became Marketing Director of Pret A Manger, overseeing the brand’s development globally. Pret now has 500 shops worldwide and sales of £900m. In 2016 Pret was voted brand of the year by the UK marketing industry, not least for its pioneering Veggie Pret initiative.

In 2017, Mark transitioned to a part time board advisory role at Pret and now combines this role with a range of other activities. He is the co-founder of soft drinks company Cawston Press, co-founder of LA Brewery Kombucha and Chairman of Union Hand Roasted coffee.

John Stapleton needs no introduction in the UK food and beverage industry. He is a founder, mentor and investor who has definitely been there and done that. In this episode we catch up with him about his experiences with Glencoe Foods Inc. John speaks candidly about the decisions leading to closing it down and the life lessons he gained from it.

John Stapleton is a founder member of the start-up team that set up and built New Covent Garden Soup Co Ltd. (1987), which pioneered and grew the fresh soup category in the UK. They sold The New Covent Garden Soup Co in 1998 to The Daniels Group (later Hain-Daniels). He then co-founded Glencoe Foods Inc., tasked with bringing the fresh soup concept to the US. 

In 2005, John co-founded Little Dish, which supplies healthy, natural and convenient meals and snacks to children over one year old. Little Dish created the chilled toddler food category, developing full UK retailer distribution and became the go-to brand in fresh toddler food and healthy snacks. He exited Little Dish in 2017 to a US-based private equity firm.

John now provides business growth advice and mentorship to growing businesses. He actively manages an investor/Non-Executive Director portfolio contributing value-added business growth advice, guidance and mentoring to business owners. 

In this episode we chat with Mike Stevens Co-Founder of Peppersmith about a rough period when he was seriously considering administration. He shares the dramatic story of how he got through this time and managed to build the business back and exit in 2018.

Mike started his career working for a US Software company. He was one of the first employees at Innocent where he spent 8 years.  Mike founded Peppersmith in 2009 with a colleague from innocent, Dan Shrimpton. The goal was to shake up the confectionery industry with healthier, more natural, sustainable products. The next 10 years were spent establishing the brand, scaling it in very turbulent times and eventually selling it in 2018. Mike now works as a consultant and has various side projects, including writing a book on DTC brands and building a software tool for cofounders.

In this episode we chat with Fiona Fitzpatrick from Brand Growth Heroes about some very challenging times in her 20+ year CPG career. Fiona speaks very openly about her struggles with eating disorders and how therapy is a fantastic tool for founders and business leaders alike.  Fiona Fitzpatrick is the host of the Brand Growth Heroes Podcast, which uncovers the fascinating stories of game changing scale up brands. Her day job is being a strategy consultant for CPG businesses that are scaling up, training, lecturing and mentoring founders. Fiona has spent 20+years working for blue-chip CPG & global consulting firms including Gu, Nestle UK and Chobani. 

In this episode we catch up with Hugh Duffie, co-founder of Sandows, UK pioneer of cold brew coffee. Hugh speaks candidly about the experience of closing the business down in 2020. 

A barista by training, Hugh co-founded Sandows in 2014. Since deciding to close Sandows in 2020, Hugh has been working as a consultant focusing on strategy, positioning, E-Commerce and digital marketing for fledgling DTC brands. 

In this episode we catch up with Andy Allen, partner at Biff's Kitchen. Andy opens up about how he navigated through the complex emotions of transitioning from one start up to the next.

Andy is a self confessed ‘F&B start up geek’, who’s currently involved with a number of brands. His day job is as commercial director and partner of Biff’s kitchen, which is the UK’s leading plant based delivery brand. He’s also an NED/Advisor/Investor in brands including OGGS, Olly’s, Willicroft and Stroodles. 

Prior to a personal pivot into a plant based focus, he was co-founder and CMO at Snaffling Pig, where he won the Virgin Foodpreneur award and had a successful trip to the Dragons' Den. Pre being bitten by the F&B bug he founded and ran an advertising business. 

In this episode we catch up with Jason Gibb Co-Founder of the must attend Bread & Jam events. He bravely opens up about his experiences of setting up multiple food businesses and partnerships. 

Jason is an experienced food and drink entrepreneur with a colourful career path – he has been a successful TV producer, a book author, a PhD-qualified biochemist and an olive oil producer. His career in food started when he threw in a 10 year career as a Hollywood TV producer and bought an abandoned olive grove in Le Marche, Italy. He created an olive oil brand called Nudo which was sold around the world and in British stores such as Selfridges, Harrods, John Lewis and Waitrose. After 10 fruitful years Jason successfully exited from the olive oil business and co-founded Bread & Jam, the UK’s first food founders’ festival. This annual conference is a one-stop shop for any food or drink FMCG business looking for start, scale or expand. He also created the FoodHub Forum on Facebook, which is a lively community of over 10,000 food and drink entrepreneurs and is most recently focused on launching Unruly, a plant-based business with that uses his experience of following a plant-based diet for over 40 years. He has lined up some ground-breaking NPD in the pipeline for 2021.

In this episode we chat with legendary entrepreneur and investor Giles Brook. Giles shares his stories about leaving Vita Coco and selling Bear. Giles also talks about how he actively encourages founders to manage their mental health. His recent investment in Bio&Me also raises the hot topic of the link between mental health and gut health.

Giles Brook is a renowned serial start up CEO, entrepreneur & investor and has been a leading factor behind the success of flag ship challenger brands such as innocent, BEAR, Vita Coco & Pip & Nut. 

Giles has just relinquished his role as CEO of Vita Coco EMEA which he launched in Europe over a decade ago and has built to £60m in retail sales across the EMEA region. The leading coconut water brand tells one of the biggest global success stories in non-alcoholic drinks over the last decade. Giles remains an advisor to the founders and main board.

In this episode we catch up with Thea Alexander, co-founder of Young Foodies about helping the Young Foodies community navigate through 2020. 

Thea started her career in banking and went on to Proper where she worked as a Director of Operations. Thea co-founded Young Foodies in 2017 to support high growth challenger brands with training, advice and community. The Young Foodies community includes more than 1000 high growth challenger brands today.