How a Serial Founder Built 3 Food Brands To 50 Million LIVE AT LUNCH! Festival

How do you build a food brand from scratch, survive a disastrous launch and go on to build three successful brands?In this live episode of Getting to Grow, recorded at Lunch!, Zoe Fox sits down with James Averdieck, the founder of Gü, Coconut Collaborative and Spooners, to talk about what it really takes to build, grow and scale food and drink brands. He is also Zoe’s boss, so the questions were kept nice. The answers weren’t.James launched Gü about 25 years ago, in a heatwave, when chocolate puddings don’t sell. It was a complete disaster for the first three months, and both Sainsbury’s and Waitrose threatened to delist it. He went on to sell the business in 2010 at age 44, then moved into coconut, a niche inside a big category that he believed could grow into something much bigger. Today he’s behind Coconut Collaborative, which has just launched coconut water, and Spooners, a cookie dough brand that took a first-mover position in the UK supermarket desserts aisle.The conversation also covers why James believes money doesn’t build brands, why you have to earn your market share in the UK rather than buy it, and why rate of sale is the number that drives the industry. He explains the difference between playing to win and playing not to lose, why he has no business idols, and why he’d turn down a hypothetical £10 million. He also shares his view on manifesting and mindset for anyone scared to start a business.In this episode:How James launched Gü and survived a disastrous first three monthsHow near-delisting from Sainsbury’s and Waitrose almost ended the brandWhy he moved from desserts into coconut after selling GüWhy he doesn’t call Coconut Collaborative a “yogurt alternative”How Coconut Collaborative launched coconut water and reached about £400k in sales in three monthsHow Spooners found a gap in the cookie dough marketWhy rate of sale is the metric that matters in UK supermarketsWhy money is the lubricant, not the engine, of growthWhy entrepreneurial teams play to win and big companies play not to loseWhy being customer-focused is the key to winningWhy James has no business idols and follows his nose insteadWhy he would hate being a non-exec directorHow mindset and manifesting help founders build confidenceWhy trade shows like Lunch! matter for making connectionsWhat James would do if he lost everything tomorrowWhether there’s another business after SpoonersIf you’re interested in entrepreneurship, food and drink, FMCG, consumer brands, retail, product development, startups or business growth, you’ll enjoy this conversation.Follow Zoe FoxInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/gettingtogrow/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoe-foxgettingtogrow/coconut collab:https://www.instagram.com/coconutcollab/?hl=enhttps://coconutco.co.uk/