intelligence Postscript: Paul Lindley Dad knows best | by Jade Sermon

For Ella’s Kitchen founder, Paul Lindley, the success of his children’s food range has no cultural or geographical borders

: BIOGRAPHY

After almost a decade in children’s TV as deputy managing director of Nickelodeon UK, Paul Lindley knew a thing or two about what little people wanted. So, having tried to give his young daughter the most natural foods possible during her

early years, he decided to launch his own children’s food company. Named after his daughter, Ella’s Kitchen was born in 2005 and has since become one of the UK’s top 10 fastest-growing companies. It exports to fi ve nations around the world, with further expansion planned for the brand.

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It really all comes down to understanding your customer

Six years ago, no one had heard of Ella’s Kitchen. Today, its range of baby and children’s food products adorns the shelves of supermarkets in the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, the US and will soon be available in the UAE. The secret of this phenomenal growth lies in the vision of its founder Paul Lindley who believes focussing on the end user, in other words babies and children rather than just mums, is what sets his business apart from the competition. He explains: “I came from the viewpoint that babies will make their own decisions, infl uencing mums’ choices. I thought that if we can make food that engages them in all of their senses with bright packaging and fun names, such as ‘The Red One’ or ‘The Yellow One’, then a child would feel they own the product more. The food also happens to be healthy, which of course is what parents want.” Lindley knew his business had the potential to go global from day one. “I knew the brand would connect with families wherever they were,” he says. “I started with the view that families are more the same than they are different and, as long as you are culturally sensitive, the products would sell anywhere. Our goal is to become the fi rst global premium food brand for little people.” Despite Lindley’s confi dence, he has obviously exerted some professional caution before entering other countries, wisely testing the market and conducting valuable research into the cultural differences that might mean the range is not so enthusiastically received. It was crucial, he says, to select initially a country that was not so large it would weaken the business if it went wrong, but big enough to be worthwhile. With help from UK Trade & Investment, Lindley chose Sweden as a fi rst export market. Denmark and Norway followed soon

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after, but not before Lindley identifi ed and solved potential problems before they impacted his business. “Kids in Sweden don’t go to school until they are seven, and when they do they only have hot dinners,” he says. “There are no packed lunches, so supermarkets present food differently. We therefore had to position our products differently, and it has worked, which has proven to us we can build a good market share there and that our brand is exportable.” With his products now successfully launched in the US too, a vast country that threw up new challenges such as much higher distribution costs and different legislation, Lindley acknowledges there has been signifi cant learning along the way. But as long as Ella’s Kitchen continues to grow within its working capital in these days of limited credit, there is no reason why he cannot achieve his goal of becoming a global brand. So, from one who has achieved it so successfully, what advice would he give to UK businesses thinking of making the leap to exporting their products? “Don’t be seduced by the idea that you

are getting lots of interest from places around the world,” he says. “If you can’t make it a sustainable business then it will not work. You must have a commercial deal that works from day one where you can see where the growth is coming from, and you must have the time, the money and the skills to really make it happen. Another piece of advice would be around cash fl ow - do you know who you are trading with? Get payments up front for the fi rst few orders and establish trust over time. The last thing I would say is that it really all comes down to understanding your customer.”

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For further information, visit: www.ellaskitchen.co.uk

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