entrepreneurs – profile 17
small to make a difference, try going to bed with a mosquito.” I think we’re the mosquito to these big guys. Suddenly we’ve got a 12% market share and growing every year, and they must be thinking how did we let that happen? It was very hard work but we punch above our weight in terms of being seen as a leading food brand and a leading entrepreneurial brand, it’s a business that has doubled its size every year in a recession.
What would you consider your greatest achievement?
Certainly my proudest point is going in to a Sainsbury’s store on that very first day and seeing Ella’s face looking back from the shelves and seeing the first person on the first day buying our products, that tops everything else. But it’s also the emotional recognition from consumers, and you think we have actually made a difference here. If Ella’s Kitchen wasn’t around then kids’ diets would be worse than they are today. Every second of every day somebody somewhere is eating Ella’s Kitchen food and we’ve sold over 100 million portions of organic fruit and vegetables in our five years and you can argue that that would have been 100 million portions of fruit and veg that kids wouldn’t have had otherwise. That’s the thing that ticks my box.
What do you think it takes personally to succeed?
One is creativity – to be able to think of things differently and imagine the impossible, almost. Creativity is what I really enjoy, the emotional reward for creating something out of nothing really gets me. Secondly, a passion for what you’re doing, a real belief, it’s not about setting up a company to make money, it’s about a clear goal. The third thing is tenacity, getting up when you get knocked over and finding ways round obstacles. Those three things are I think about being entrepreneurial.
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2011
You’re a finalist in the National Business Awards entrepreneur of the year award – would you consider yourself a true entrepreneur?
In just about every respect, yes. But what I think an entrepreneur does which I haven’t been challenged on yet or had the opportunity to do, is do multiple businesses. I’m very passionate about what we’re doing now, but whether I could do that again with something else – I think I could if I found a thing that I was passionate about and could be creative with and make a difference to, but it’s also doing something that’s not been done before. It is very humbling to be recognised, but what every entrepreneur should say, because it’s absolutely true, is you can have the ideas but it’s your team that actually delivers. Finding the right team, finding exceptional people and motivating them is an important part of our success and our team here, 38-odd strong, has delivered. The award we won last year within the Thames Valley for me was great recognition locally of establishing employment and a skillset within the area and recognition for some of the outreach and work we do locally. It’s really important locally to celebrate a business that is a national and international business now, when before it was nothing.
Would you think about setting up a company in your son Paddy’s name? Are there new business ideas in you?
The biggie out of all the challenges and pressures I think I’ve had, never mind dealing with big supermarkets and banks, was when Paddy was 4 and he said “do you think daddy will do Paddy’s Kitchen?”! I have that business idea, and when the opportunity is right we will try and do something, but there’s such an opportunity with Ella’s Kitchen to get further, to be that global brand, that it would be wrong to launch at this present time. One of the challenges with truly entrepreneurial companies is to be able to focus on delivering what you start out to do.
Are there any other unfulfilled ambitions? What’s next for the company, and for you?
To continue to grow and get our market share up in each of the seven territories we’re in and elsewhere is an adventure I still want to go on. There’s an opportunity to even more closely understand what consumers want and to innovate in even more areas and in different categories – the children’s chilled food sector is an opportunity. I also have a tax relief proposal out to the Government at the moment, an idea called consumer excellence relief – it would encourage more businesses to invest in understanding their consumers more, which would help business, brands and our exports, so that’s really exciting. We’re in the process of setting up an Ella’s Kitchen Foundation in Zambia, where I grew up. But also to be with the family and kids and not forget that that time of life with children passes so quickly. There are lots of things to do, I’m only in my forties. I’m a real believer that you live one life and do as much as you can in that life because if you don’t, you’re the one that’s going to regret it when you’re at the end of it.
Details:
ellaskitchen.co.uk www.businessmag.co.uk
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