Brand Growth Heroes

Founder Barney Mauleverer describes Fuel10k as 'a 12 year overnight success'

In Part 2 of our two part series covering the growth journey & sale of the protein breakfast brand Fuel10k to Premier Foods, learn:

• The three reasons that Fuel10k was the perfect fit for Premier Foods already impressive national brand portfolio
• It Fuel10K 10 years to get to £10 million in revenue but 2.5 years to do the next £10 million
• £10 million turnover is the magic number: the figure at which your P&L and growth trajectory to change for the better
• Why Fuel10K NEVER had an injection of big bucks & why they wanted to grow their business the old-fashioned way
• The role of Student Reps working in, in universities as part of their field sales and marketing team
• Why it's never too early to build relationships with the M&A advisory world
• One of Barney's key talents is putting the right people in the right roles
• Why Barney and his co-founders gave 1 years salary to those employees who had been in the business for over 2 years.

A favour! Could you #Payitforward?
I really hope that you enjoyed this episode & that it has helped you in some way!
If so, would you take 3 mins to click FOLLOW on your podcast app, as well as leave a review?
This small gift from you has a big impact on me ... and on MY business.
Thank you 🙏

Don't miss your favourite brands talk about how they grew their inspirational businesses!
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Are you curious to know what it's like for a founder in the week before a sale of their business?

➡ If you're building your consumer packaged goods business with the hope of one day selling it, and if you've ever wondered what it would be like to sell your branded business, then you've got to listen to this. Last week, FUEL10K (protein breakfast range) was sold to renowned UK CPG business Premier Foods.

In a two part series, Brand Growth Heroes host Fiona Fitzpatrick talks to Barney😜 Mauleverer about:

- How he & his team BUILT FUEL10K

- Why it was the right FIT for Premier Foods, and

- What it was like for him in the WEEK BEFORE the sale of the business at the end of October 2023.

First up - we revisit our episode with Barney from 2020, where the business was already turning over £12M in revenue and present in multiple international markets. 

Barney Mauleverer cut his teeth in food and drink during the front five years of early stage Innocent Drinks. Leaving in 2006 as European Manager, Barney sought a more entrepreneurial route of his own and set up food brand exporting company Fresh Marketing with pal Alex Matheson.

Listen to how Barney and his team built the Fuel 10K business, and in the next episode launching soon, we'll explore what it took to sell the business to Premier Foods.

A favour! Could you #Payitforward?
I really hope that you enjoyed this episode & that it has helped you in some way!
If so, would you take 3 mins to click FOLLOW on your podcast app, as well as leave a review?
This small gift from you has a big impact on me ... and on MY business.
Thank you 🙏

Don't miss your favourite brands talk about how they grew their inspirational businesses!
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COOK is an award winning frozen meals company based in the UK.  It’s impressive turnover of £130M comes from its it 98 retail stores and 1000 concessions that it supplies from its own manufacturing facilities.  Yet some 28 years from inception, the business STILL doesn’t sell to any major UK grocery retailers!

Founder Ed Perry tells me how he has managed to keep the business 100% privately owned, how their passion for creating a great company culture plays a central role in what they do, and how- to achieve their mission- they still cook using the same ingredients and techniques that a good cook would use at home in order

Here are the top 5 things you'll learn :

1. COOK started with just 1 store in 2006, and now has over 1600 employees and a turnover of £130M...yet is still 100% privately owned!
2. How COOK's core brand promise is the driving force behind their success
3. How the company's RAW TALENT program strives to help people rebuild their lives and contribute positively to society
4. Why Ed advises believes you have to measure your company culture
5. How building a business for the long term can give you the freedom to make decisions that can lead to better outcomes for society as a whole

A favour! Could you #Payitforward?
I really hope that you enjoyed this episode & that it has helped you in some way!
If so, would you take 3 mins to click FOLLOW on your podcast app, as well as leave a review?
This small gift from you has a big impact on me ... and on MY business.
Thank you 🙏

Don't miss your favourite brands talk about how they grew their inspirational businesses!
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I've been in love with the bright, punchy and delicious Rude Health brand since it launched in 2006.

Originally a muesli business, Rude Health's revenue now comes predominantly from alt. milks, although this is something Camilla never would have imagined when they first launched them!

A well-known and much-loved brand in 4 major markets, Rude Health is admired for it's brightly coloured boxes and cartons which inject joy into mornings across the U.K, Portugal & Benelux.

Co-founder Camilla Barnard began the business 18 years ago with her ex-husband, with the intention of making healthier eating a celebration, not a sacrifice for as many people as they could. Compared to the expectations of many founders starting out today, you could say that the business has grown relatively slowly, however there's a massive upside to this: Rude Health is still over 90% privately owned, with their only 'major' minor shareholder being....PepsiCo!

Here are the Top 9 things you'll learn :

1. Camilla didn't know much about running a product-based business, let alone a food business, before she started, and why this mattered.
2. How Rude Health's earliest vision was always MASSIVE: to make healthy eating a celebration, not a sacrifice.
3. How Camilla is obsessed asking the right questions to her shoppers, consumers and retail buyers, and learn how you can do this too. 
4. What the brand-design process for the Rude Health brand looked like, in detail.
5. What the 'clothing' your brand wears says about it in terms of when and how to use it, and whether it's for you or not...
6. Why Rude Health has chosen to play mainly in Grocery Retail and not Online 
7. How Rude health split their marketing budget now vs. 3 years ago
8. The role of new product development in their business and how this has changed over time
9. How to recruit the right people for your business - is it skill, experience or mindset?

Could you #Payitforward?
If you enjoy this episode & it has helped you in some way, will you take 3 mins to leave a review on your podcast app?
This small gift from you has a big impact on me ... and on my business.
 Thank you 🙏

Don't miss your favourite brands talk about how they grew their inspirational businesses!
Click the Follow button beside Brand Growth Heroes on your podcast app

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Email Fiona for a 1-1 coaching session: fiona@fionafitzconsulting.com

See how Fiona can help you design and develop group-coaching programmes for your senior commercial and marketing teams: Fiona Fitz Consulting

"What is Susan who's 40 talking about with her friends when she picks the kids up from school? Or what is Dave who's 50, who's a builder, sharing in his WhatsApp group? What kind of videos are you sharing that you're seeing online? Or what kind of TV shows are they watching and talking about with their friends?'

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As a rule, I don't interview marketing agencies on Brand Growth Heroes, but I made an exception when I reached out to our next guest.
Dan Knowlton is one half of Knowlton, a digital and social media market agency that has me in stitches with the videos they create and post on LinkedIn. If you don't follow them yet, I suggest you do.

Both Dan and his brother Lloyd Knowlton are hilarious. But why is this of value to you? Well, since I interviewed Jake Carls of Midday Squares and then Teddy and Marissa of Perfect Ted a few episodes ago, I've been exploring how the concept of advertainment works and why it's way more important to you as a grocery brand leader than just posting product shots.

Dan knows way more about advertainement than I do, so I thought a good chat with him would be of real value to us all.

Here are the top 5 things you'll learn :

1. How to truly understand your Target Audience, in a way you never have before
2. How to Connect with What Really Matters to your Audience
3. How to Trigger their Emotions
4. How to Build Trust and Overcome Objections 
5. Where to Allocate your Budget in your marketing funnel

Please leave a review on your podcast app if you enjoyed this episode!

Don't miss your favourite brands talk about how they grew their inspirational businesses!
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Email Fiona for a 1-1 session: fiona@fionafitzconsulting.com
See how Fiona can group-coach your senior commercial and marketing teams internally: Fiona Fitz Consulting

ODDBOX is a D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) BCorp business with a bold vision: a world where all food grown is eaten.
 
Husband & wife team Deepak Ravindran and Emilie Vanpoperinghe founded the business 8 years ago, and have allowed their passion for sustainability to design their clever business model.

ODDBOX delivers boxes of fruit, vegetables, and other products that are at risk of waste to their 500,000 D2C customers. Working closely with growers and suppliers, they originally focused on produce that may not meet cosmetic specifications or size requirements set by retailers but is still perfectly good to eat. 

In this episode, they share their journey from coming up with the idea for ODDBOX and testing it with 20 customers, to eventually growing the business to £32 million

You’ll learn :

• How they started their business packing ODDBOXes in a local church hall
• How they accessed the cash to fund their spectacular growth
• The importance of their relationships with growers, managing the supply chain and ensuring excellent customer experience
• Their plans for future growth, including their recently launched ODDSHOP and ODDBOX-branded consumer packaged products
• How they implemented geo-targeted marketing strategies, focusing on driving demand in the specific areas where they were delivering their boxes.
• Why traditional marketing methods like leaflet distribution through door-to-door worked well for them
• Their thoughts and experience of the effectiveness of influencer marketing but later found it to be successful in building awareness and trust.

Don't miss your favourite brands talk about how they grew their inspirational businesses!
Click the Follow button beside Brand Growth Heroes on your podcast app

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Become part of the Brand Growth Heroes community!
Sign up here for news and information on Brand Growth Heroes Accelerator Programme
Email Fiona for a 1-1 session: fiona@fionafitzconsulting.com
See how Fiona can group-coach your senior commercial and marketing teams internally: Fiona Fitz Consulting

Get ready for a dose of entrepreneurial truth bombs as the vivacious trailblazer, Amelia Christie-Miller, spills the beans on one of the blunders she made whilst venturing towards business triumph! Bold Bean Co.

YOU too can be featured on Brand Growth Bloopers! Just send me a WhatsApp on +447418605547 and tell me the following:

• Your name
• Your brand website and Instagram handle
• A quick outline of your brand growth blooper, for example, 'manufacturing disaster, wrong ingredients' or 'no laptop power at a Tesco buyer meeting' etc
• What's in it for you? If you are chosen to feature on the show, you'll have the opportunity to share your brand growth blooper story as well as sharing your website, instagram and LinkedIn handles to thousands of listeners around the world. You could even do what Simona Deifta did in one of our first bonus episodes, and share a coupon code so that listeners can buy your product with an exclusive discount!

So that you don't miss your favourite brands talk about how they grew their inspirational businesses,
click the Follow button beside Brand Growth Heroes on your podcast app (on apple podcasts it's three dots like this (...)

Follow Brand Growth Heroes here on Instagram, Tiktok, Linkedin

Become part of the Brand Growth Heroes community!
Sign up here for news and information on Brand Growth Heroes Accelerator Programme
Email Fiona for a 1-1 session: fiona@fionafitzconsulting.com
See how Fiona can group-coach your senior commercial and marketing teams internally: Fiona Fitz Consulting

 As the founder or leader of a grocery brand, have you ever thought it would be GREAT to pool your central costs with other brands like yours?

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I certainly considered it when I was launching GU Chocolate Puds in France years ago, and as a result,  I created a shared field sales team with Innocent France for the French market, and it was certainly something worth doing for the period of time it worked for both businesses.

I wanted to explore what this looks like today, so in this next episode, I talk to Ben Arib, founder of Rebel Kitchen, and more recently Nurture Brands, a cohort of eight better-for-you brands - Rebel Kitchen & Myracle Kitchen, Primal Pantry, Doisy & Dam, Emily, Jax Coco, Indie Ba - that share the same platform (and equity) in order to mutualize a lot of their costs.

Ben explains how the Nurture Brands' shared model works, why he started it, and all the economics behind it.

So that you don't miss the leaders of your favourite brands talk about how they grew their inspirational businesses, click the Follow button beside Brand Growth Heroes on your podcast app (on apple podcasts it's three dots like this (...)

Become part of the Brand Growth Heroes community!
Sign up here for news and information on Brand Growth Heroes Accelerator Programme
Email Fiona for a 1-1 session: fiona@fionafitzconsulting.com
See how Fiona can group-coach your senior commercial and marketing teams internally: Fiona Fitz Consulting

Renée Elliott is the original founder of much-loved UK organic retailer Planet Organic...and now she's back: to rescue the business out of administration. At the time of recording, we are 3 weeks into this rescue deal. All the latest insider info is right inside this episode, along with some invitations to suppliers to join Planet Organic on their new journey, as well as information on Renée's upcoming women's retreat (www.womentree.uk).

Have you ever messed up and felt like you were the only founder in the world to make such a stupid mistake?
 
Simona Deifta, female powerhouse and founder of the brilliant sauces and dressings Nojo London, shares one of the biggest brand growth bloopers she's made along the way to getting national listings with Ocado, Co-Op, Wholefoods and Amazon.

YOU can be featured on Brand Growth Bloopers! Just send me a WhatsApp on +447418605547 and tell me the following:

• Your name
• Your brand website and Instagram handle
• A quick outline of your brand growth blooper, for example, 'manufacturing disaster, wrong ingredients' or 'no laptop power at a Tesco buyer meeting' etc
• What's in it for you? If you are chosen to feature on the show, you'll have the opportunity to share your brand growth blooper story as well as sharing your website, instagram and LinkedIn handles to thousands of listeners around the world. You could even do what Simona did, and share a coupon code!

So that you don't miss your favourite brands talk about how they grew their inspirational businesses,
click the Follow button beside Brand Growth Heroes on your podcast app (on apple podcasts it's three dots like this (...)

Follow Brand Growth Heroes here on Instagram, Tiktok, Linkedin

Become part of the Brand Growth Heroes community!
Sign up here for news and information on Brand Growth Heroes Accelerator Programme
Email Fiona for a 1-1 session: fiona@fionafitzconsulting.com
See how Fiona can group-coach your senior commercial and marketing teams internally: Fiona Fitz Consulting

Hear how Marisa and Teddy learned from their big-green-explosion-mistake, whilst preparing for their first-ever show - the London Coffee Festival!

If you'd like the chance to be featured on Brand Growth Bloopers, please send us a WhatsApp on +447418605547 and tell us the following:

• Your name & email address
• Your brand website and instagram handle
• A quick outline of your brand growth blooper, for example 'manufacturing disaster, wrong ingredients' etc
• If you are chosen to feature on the show you'll have the opportunity to share your brand with our audience including what you make, who you’re for, and your website, instagram and LinkedIn handles.
• Every brand that is featured on the Brand Growth Blooper bonus episodes will go into a draw with the chance to win a place on the next Brand Growth Accelerator programme (formally The Growth Strategy Programme) in October 2023.

Click the Follow button beside Brand Growth Heroes on your podcast app (on apple podcasts it's three dots like this (...)

Follow Brand Growth Heroes here on Instagram, Tiktok, Linkedin

Become part of the Brand Growth Heroes community!
Sign up here for news and information on Brand Growth Heroes Accelerator Programme

See how Fiona’s group coaching programmes can help develop your senior commercial and marketing teams internally: Fiona Fitz Consulting

Perfect Ted, the natural energy drinks brand powered by matcha green tea, has taken the UK food and drink industry by storm.

Despite launching just 18 months ago, Marisa, Teddie, and Levi have grown their business to a run-rate of £5M, secured a national listing with Tesco UK across three different in-store categories, and even won offers from all five dragons on Dragon's Den.

What's more, they've accomplished this by successfully taking a niche ingredient that they are passionate about into the mass market.

Make sure you get the latest from Brand GrowthHeroes -> Click the follow or ...  dropdown button beside Brand Growth Heroes on your podcast app now!  You can also follow Brand Growth Heroes here on Instagram, Tiktok and Linkedin.

In this episode, Marissa and Teddie chat with Fiona about their journey to success. They discuss the biggest mistakes they've made, how they struggled with positioning their brand and the role of matcha, and how they ultimately hit on the winning solution through their work on The Growth Strategy Programme. They emphasize the importance of focusing on product benefits rather than just ingredients and reveal the advice they would give to any founders preparing for a pitch to investors, buyers or Dragons!

The duo also share their experience on Dragon's Den and how it was by far the biggest risk they've taken to date. They talk about the impact the show has had on their sales, and the personal investment necessary to grow their business. Additionally, they discuss the benefits of having a strong multi-channel customer base and reveal how they secured their first Michelin star listing.

Finally, Marisa and Teddie answer the question everyone wants to know: what it's like to have Dragon and serial entrepreneur Steven Bartlett as a mentor!!

Tune in to hear their inspiring story and valuable insights into building a successful brand.

Become part of the Brand Growth Heroes community!
Sign up here for news and information on Brand Growth Heroes Accelerator Programme
Email Fiona for a 1-1 session: fiona@fionafitzconsulting.com
See how Fiona can help develop your commercial and marketing teams internally: Fiona Fitz Consulting

Perfect Ted Instagram
Perfect Ted Tiktok
Perfect Ted website
Teddie Linkedin
Marisa Linkedin

Mid-Day Squares is the Canadian functional chocolate sensation that EVERYONE in the food and drink industry is talking about.

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Heroes podcast

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Launched in 2018, this family-led business is planning to disrupt the $8 billion dollar health bar market in the USA.

But they're also disrupting what Food & Bev marketers define as best practice, in terms of approach to Social Media!

Forbes 30 under 30 co-founderJake Karls talks Fiona through:

• How he, his sister Lezlie and brother-in-law Nick had been 'swinging and missing' with other startups before Mid-Day Squares was conceived...
• How they ended up with such a great product market fit...
• How they decided on the 1 MASSIVE way the brand would 'show up' to the world...
• How they built the momentum, energy, and hype that means their product is PULLED off shelf...
• Why an understanding of the entertainment world - and story-telling-  is so important to marketers....
• Why Jake didn’t originally want to get involved in this family business...
• His pitch for the brand to 'show-up' as a blend of the best of The Kardashians, the best of Shark Tank, and the best of Elon Musk...
• How to break through the biggest barrier to every F&B business -  the 'Attention Barrier'...
• How you need to be unapologetically yourself, even if 50% of people are going to dislike you...
• The 3 things you need to tell an amazing story...
• The three pillars around which the Mid-Day Squares business is organized...
• How therapy has been the answer to help them run the business successfully...
• How they personalized their relationship with their consumers in the early days, and how they continue to do that at scale...

Want to work with Fiona?
Email Fiona for a 1-1 session: fiona@fionafitzconsulting.com
See how Fiona can help develop your commercial and marketing teams internally: Fiona Fitz Consulting

Mid-Day Squares Instagram
Mid-Day Squares Tiktok

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CPG Founders: Want to know the secret *three NEW must-haves* that investors are insisting on in the current economic climate?

Verlinvest is the investment company behind your favourite insurgent brands like Tony's Chocolonely, Oatly, Mutti, Vita Coco and Who Gives a Crap. 

Their investment - and their team - is helping to build some of the world's largest consumer brands. 

In this episode (recorded a few months back), I speak to Director Ben Black and I get some top advice for founders looking for funding.

But most importantly...we'll let you in on a secret: 

There are THREE NEW THINGS that investors are looking for in today's economic climate. These are not listed here, you’re going to have to listen to the show!

And as a bonus…you'll also learn:

1. At what point in time do you need to be showing profitability in your business plan?
2. What a consumer revolution is and why it matters
3. What Fiona means by 'understanding your consumers’ ‘inflation-friction’  and why it's KEY
4. What VCs actually DO to help founders other than offer money
5. How you know that you're not trying HARD enough....

I hope you enjoy this latest episode and learn as much as I did recording it!

Want to work with Fiona?
Email Fiona for a 1-1 session: fiona@fionafitzconsulting.com
See how Fiona can help develop your commercial and marketing teams internally: Fiona Fitz Consulting

As the founder of Veganuary, Veg Capital, Vegan Fried Chick*n or VFC,  and most recently a new venture capital fund called Sentient Ventures,  Matthew Glover is a business activist and a serial founder whose initiatives have contributed significantly to the changes we are all experiencing in how we eat today.

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In this episode, Matthew shares how he left his career in double-glazing to fight animal cruelty; the exact steps he and his wife took to create the Veganuary movement and, arguably, how it has been the tipping point for the plant-based revolution in our eating habits and in the food industry today. He also tells us why he's made the decision to 'invest in growth up-front' in the VFC (Vegan Fried Chick*n) brand.
Finally, we learn about his venture capital businesses - Veg Capital and Sentient Ventures, including what they look for when evaluating new investments.

I hope you enjoy this latest episode and learn as much as I did recording it!

Get Fiona on your brand team here: The Growth Strategy Programme and Fiona Fitz Consulting

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If you work in the food industry, you need to start swotting up on this subject area:
 **Regenerative Agriculture**
 
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Wildfarmed is a regenerative food brand bringing together farmers, food businesses and consumers to build the largest soil and biodiversity restoration programme on British arable land. But uniquely, they are making delicious food grown in healthy soils widely available to the high street customer, whilst guaranteeing a stable price committed to the farmer who makes the transition to regenerative practices.

Fiona speaks to Edd Lees, who along with Andy Cato of Groove Armada and George Lamb, is one of the co-founders of this revolutionary new business.

Founded in 2018, Wildfarmed’s overriding premise is to 'fix the planet by fixing food'. 

Wildfarmed prioritises soil health and never uses pesticides, herbicides or fungicides, so the land is left rich for future harvests. This in turn ensures that any Wildfarmed loaf of bread will always be chemical-free and nutrient-dense. There are now 40 farmers growing under contract with Wildfarmed (with an ever-growing waitlist), representing a staggering 1% of British arable land.

Wildfarmed’s first ever bakery partner was Jolene in Newington Green, London and soon Pizza Pilgrims, HIDE, Twelve Triangles, all joined the movement. They’re now up to a total of nearly 230 customers who bake, cook and educate consumers through using Wildfarmed flour.

If you work in the food industry, how can you engage with regenerative farming practices?

Find out more about Wildfarmed here. and on mob here

Get Fiona on your brand team here: The Growth Strategy Programme and Fiona Fitz Consulting

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waterdrop® is the $100M insurgent beverage brand that may not yet be on your radar...at least if you're based in the U.K.
But you need to be all over it...here's why:

What is waterdrop®?
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waterdrop® is a 'microdrink' company that offers dissolvable cubes of flavour that you can carry with you and drop into tap water whenever you want a drink. Their flavour-cubes are plant-based, sugar-free, and even include vitamins, teas and energy. From a marketing strategy point of view, the cube becomes a carrier to deliver solutions to many different types of people, needs and occasions.

waterdrop®'s purpose is to make it easy for everyone to drink more tap water, more often. The ecosystem of products and 'water-tech' that the company is building in order to deliver on its purpose is so clever that your eyes will water.  They are present in 14 countries, and have 25 waterdrop® stores across the world, including a presence in supermarkets and high street beauty stores, as well as concessions in shopping malls. Believe it or not, they are now the largest seller of drinkware in Europe...and they've just launched an intelligent water bottle cap so you can keep track of how much water you're drinking.

The business performance stats are astonishing too. In under 5 years, the company has turned over $100M, with over north of 100M drinks sold. They’ve recently raised a series B round of $60M, to invest in conquering the US market.

We talk to founder Martin Murray about why and how he started the company, the mistakes he made along the way…and something I know you’re going to love – how martin and his co-founders persuaded their co-manufacturers to pay for the machinery and trials they needed to make waterdrop cubes a reality.

What you'll learn in this episode:
- How Martin came up with the idea for waterdrop® while he was on an aeroplane with his mother
- Why it made NO sense for anyone to try and do what they did...
- How they got their co-manufacturer to pay for their R&D and machinery, each time they needed to scale.
- How they are aiming to help more people to drink more clean water, more easily.
- Why D2C was a blue ocean for beverages
- How to create massive barriers to entry to the market you've created
- Why you should never accept the status quo

Find out more about waterdrop® here.
Get Fiona on your brand team here: The Growth Strategy Programme and Fiona Fitz Consulting

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Scott McCulloch and his wife Karris started their vegan subscription box from the living room of their flat in 2013. Nine years later, The Vegan Kind Supermarket is a multi-million pound UK online vegan grocer, the first and largest of its kind.

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In this episode - our first with a grocery retailer - you'll learn:

- Why and how Scott and Karris started their vegan subscription box business - including the steps they took to find their first 50 subscribers
- How the business evolved to become the UK's biggest online exclusively-vegan supermarket
- The exact steps YOU need to take to get YOUR retail buyer's attention...
- Scott's view on what the vegan market/landscape will look like in 5 years' time (and it's radical...)
- How you're going to have to get ready to compete with significant private-label/retailer own-brand vegan ranges over the coming year or so...
- and why the time is right for him and his wife Karris to step back from running the day-to-day of their multi-million pound online supermarket.

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Follow The Vegan Kind Supermarket here.
Come to Fiona's workshop at Bread and Jam Festival in London 18/19 July 2022 here
Learn more about the opportunity to work with Fiona's here: The Growth Strategy Programme and Fiona Fitz Consulting

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Click the subscribe or 'bell' button beside Brand Growth Heroes on your podcast app to make sure you get the latest from Brand Growth Heroes podcast.

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Serial founder and bestselling author Mike Stevens talks to Fiona about his new book 'The Direct-To-Consumer Playbook', and shares his learnings from 20 years in consumer packaged goods - and from being one of the first challenger food brands to sell directly to consumers.

Hear how Mike and his co-founder built a successful DTC business with Peppersmith; why he sold the business; how and why he went about writing his best-selling business book; the secrets to winning at DTC straight from the mouths of the most successful founders and brands in this space...and finally, what Mike would do differently, knowing what he knows now.

What you'll learn :

• When DTC is right for your business - and when it ISN'T. 
• What you NEED to figure out to make DTC work financially for your business
• The importance of talking to your consumers on the phone or in-person every week
• What Mike means by 'Having a Brand that Can Tell the Story'
• Why multi-channel is often crucial to winning
• What successful challenger brands are DOING DIFFERENTLY and what YOU can take from their strategies and implement in your own business...NOW.
• What Mike would do differently with all this knowledge and experience under his belt.

Find Mike's book here.
Meet Mike at Bread and Jam Fest here
Come to Fiona's workshop at Bread and Jam Fest here

The Cheeky Panda is on a mission to transform the type of paper products we all use across Household, Beauty, and Baby products. By using surplus bamboo instead of trees as their raw material, The Cheeky Panda makes products that are kinder to your skin as well as to the planet. In this episode, founders Chris and Julie tell us how and why they set up the business, and how they’ve grown it to £17M in sales in only 6 years, with relatively little external funding.

Find out more about The Cheeky Panda - and try some!
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Discover more about Fiona Fitz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fionafitz/
Discover more about the show: https://www.brandgrowthheroes.com/

Like what you hear & want to work with Fiona, and join a network of hundreds of scaling CPG brands?
Discover her programmes for the founders of consumer/grocery brands below:

• For the founders of SCALING grocery brands: The Growth Strategy Programme: The only online Business Accelerator for scaling consumer packaged goods brands. Read the testimonials here: https://www.fionafitzconsulting.com/courses/brand-growth-strategy-programme
• For EARLY-STAGE brands, try Brand Growth Bootcamp Masterclass Membership - Fiona's classes & group for founders of early-stage startup consumer brands https://fionafitzconsulting.mykajabi.com/offers/eRBTBioC/checkout

Thanks to Strong Roots for supporting series 5 of Brand Growth Heroes.