Episode 69: Freja Foods, Founder Ed Armitage

How to Hit a £10m Run Rate in 3 Years!

In this latest episode, Fiona talks to Ed Armitage, founder of Freja Bone Broth, who shares the secrets behind his award-winning, digital-first, scaling food business.
With a vision to become Europe's No. 1 bone broth brand, you'll hear how husband and wife team Ed and Jess built a multi-million-pound brand in just over three years - during extremely difficult economic conditions.
Investors like Harry Cain, the ex-MD of innocent smoothies Giles Brook and the ex CEO Unilever Paul Polman, have all invested in the business, find out why here!

By the way, we do a quick-fire Q&A at the end, and Ed is incredibly generous with his tips on how to grow a Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) brand profitably, so make sure you stay around and don’t miss these valuable nuggets.

Here are the top 5 things you will learn from this episode:

• How Ed and Jess have built a business that turned over £1M in the first four weeks of 2024 alone!
• Why Harry Cain, the ex-MD of innocent smoothies Giles Brook ex CEO Unilever have all invested in the business
• How a digital-first brand allows them to avoid the gate-keepers that make business hard in retail grocery
• How to overcome the challenges that most consumer brand startups face
• Ed’s 'turnover per full-time employee' Rule of thumb' that steers you on how many people to employ

I hope you enjoyed this episode and that it has helped you and your business in some way!
If it has, please hit FOLLOW to subscribe and keep an eye out for the next episode, where I'll talk to another successful founder of a challenger brand who will share more valuable insights into driving growth. Your FOLLOW makes a big difference to me and to my business, thank you.
Click the Follow button beside Brand Growth Heroes by finding it on your favourite podcast app here.

Useful links:

Freja's Website

Find the founders on LinkedIn: Jessica Higgins & Ed Armitage

Freja on Instagram

Freja on Facebook

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Thanks to my Sound Engineer, Gyp Buggane, Ballagroove.com and my producer, Kathryn Watts, Social KEWS.

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!
Click the Follow button beside Brand Growth Heroes on your podcast app

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

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!
Click the Follow button beside Brand Growth Heroes on your podcast app

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