Taking on Haribo With Half the Sugar | Wild Thingz Founder - Fliss Newland

We talk with Wild Things founder Fliss Newland about going from Mondelez to building an organic, plant-based gummy brand that targets families without losing the fun of sweets. She breaks down the practical steps behind the leap, from finding the right opportunity to nailing brand positioning, packaging, and early retail wins. 

• Childhood hustle stories and the influence of self-employed parents 
• Learning FMCG fundamentals at Mondelez, from perfect store to pricing and promotions 
• Moving to Asia to stretch skills and seek less mature markets 
• Taking on an existing vegan sweets business and spotting the product advantage 
• “manifesting” as networking, asking for help, and saying ambitions out loud 
• Qualitative consumer research with parents, including panels and real-world routines 
• Positioning sweets as balance and permissibility rather than guilt and restriction 
• Investing in distinctive branding to win at the shelf 
• Getting first sales via Lunch! trade show, distributors, independents, and sampling 
• Winning Ocado by pitching a tight proposition and staying focused on the target shopper 
• Founder highs and lows, sleep, decision-making speed, and building a team culture 

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if you want to know more about building a food business head to wwwjgreenwood.co.uk

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Setup

Jay Greenwood 0:00

Three, two, one, nom, nom, nom. Hello, and welcome to the Recipe for Gaming Us podcast. I'm your host, Shaker Greenwood, and in this podcast we're introduced the band to spine some of the best food and drink brands in the UK to tease out the knowledge and skills that they've used to grow their business. Today's guest is Fliss Newland, the founder of Wild Things, a fast-growing better-for-you gummy brand shaking up the UK's confectioner market. After building her career at Mondeleys, working on household names like Cadbury and Maynards, Fliss left the corporate world to create a sweet set, organic, plant-based, and genuinely fun, all with half the sugar and none of the junk. Fliss, welcome to the podcast.

Early Entrepreneurial Experiments

Fliss Newland 0:39

Thanks, Jay. What a lovely introduction.

Jay Greenwood 0:41

So I want to jump in and sort of start where maybe the early stages of entrepreneurship entered your life. And were there any stories of you in childhood where maybe there were some entrepreneurship flairs?

Fliss Newland 0:53

I mean, def it's weird you should ask me this because I just passed a car boot sale half an hour from where I um just still ride. And I remember me and my sisters used to go along to the auction, buy a box of tat, polish it up, and go and try and sell it at the car boot. So it's a weird little like the fact we're having this conversation. But um, but yeah, growing up, both my parents worked for themselves. So it was kind of, I guess, the norm to me as an example that only you now look back in hindsight. But um, they they're both really inspirational for me. And we used to do little bits and bobs and try and, I think as most kids do, try and sell squash on our lane and get like 20p a day. And try I sold Nesquick at school to make the milk a bit more fun until I got told off for that. So definitely little little bits through the years. And it's and actually in my adult life, you can any of my friends will tell you, I've always been, I could say, gagging, you know, at the bit, jumping at the bit to set up my own thing. It's something I've been really excited to do pretty much since since school.

Jay Greenwood 1:53

Nice. And I want to sort of like dig into the panoramic because I know you have two sisters, I'm right, and they're all like super successful as well. So, what's the sort of like driving force of all of you to like just get going, get things done? Like, where does that come from, do you think?

Fliss Newland 2:06

Uh both my sisters are just like well, firstly, just brilliant friends and people and doing amazingly. So, my younger sister works at Mondelez, the company I used to work for, she loves it there, is smashing it. She was at PG before. My older sister was Oxford McKinsey consultant and now is working for she's working for various kind of consumer brands. So they are like the boss's like free mentor, you can imagine. I mean, both of them are now fully helping me in the business. Unpaid. That's not probably unpaid, nice. ROI for me. Yeah, um, I think the drive is just about curiosity and probably competitiveness a little bit, but um, yeah, they they both massively inspire inspire me. And maybe that will come down from my mum and dad, who um yeah, been a huge driving force and encouraging and telling us that we can, you know, the recipe for greatness. I felt a bit imposter syndrome. You asked me on this pod. I'm thinking, well, but that's kind of the thing that we were instilled as kids, like having the confidence and um, yeah, just to kind of lean in and give everything a bit of a go.

Jay Greenwood 3:06

Nice. And then so you went to university. Did you have any ideas or insights of maybe where you wanted your career to go to? Or like, I guess, what was that first step after university where you decided, all right, this is my career and this is the path I want to take?

Fliss Newland 3:19

I uh so I went to Exeter and studied business and management. I did that because I couldn't really figure out what I wanted to do. Before at school, I'd done all science, and I was like, I don't think I'm a scientist, but anyway, math and stuff. So I was like, okay, I can do numbers, let's do business. Um, with that kind of deep down, and one day I'd love to set up my own thing. I worked for Lidl for a year, an undergraduate placement with Lidl. So it was so hard, but so good. I learned loads. I spent six months in stores, um, like front, you know, literally sacking shelves on tills, work running the bakery, I was deputy store manager there. And then they have a really good like training program. So I saw retail. I have to say, I thought that's not for me, but hats off for the people who it is for, because it's an incredibly tough um industry. But that brand and kind of like FMCG interested me. So after I, well, as I was graduating, I applied for different various grad schemes and landed the Mondelee's graduate scheme. If you don't know Mondelee's, they own Cabary's or Oreo, Maynard's Bassett's biggest, biggest leaders really in snacking. Um, and that their scheme really excited me because it was a full three-year programme across sales and marketing. At that point, I didn't know, you know, I was a bit generalist, I didn't know what I was interested in. So I loved the fact I'd have a proper, and I did, really, you know, in-depth learning into kind of FNCG, consumer brand, pricing, shop, like shopper marketing, etc. So um, so that's what I did. And I was buzzing when I got it because I was obsessed with cream eggs at the time, and and I had always been obsessed with cream eggs, each birthday, get a big case of like 40 and eat them. So to be working for the brand that owned Cadries was like um it was uh euphoric, actually. And yeah, and it was a brilliant time on that grad scheme.

Jay Greenwood 5:01

And working for such a big company, what was like some of the big insights you took about sort of brands and how they reach people? Were there any things that you really took from your time there?

Purpose Shift And Asia Move

Fliss Newland 5:14

Like phenomenal amounts. My cat just commented to see let's see how that goes. I think I took like phenomenal amounts, like the learning curve was just ridiculous. And like I never worked around such bright people who like everybody, you kind of just want to soak it all in. Like everyone is just like 10 steps ahead. I think I learned I learnt a lot about the fundamentals of like store, like perfect store. What does a perfect store look like? All about almost like stripping it back to basics, um, like in-store positioning, feature, display, price promotion, price back architecture. So looking at how we can drive value for these huge brands like Cabries, you've got to really think like right down to the consumer, like how can we meet every single consumer need from you know, cradle to grave, at any occasion, any demand space. It it kind of, I think, when when you're such a when you see such huge brands, they have to go to such depths of like consumer behavior to find these like tiny white spaces that are left when you're a brand with a 50% market share. So I think I didn't even realize quite how much I'd learn. And I I'm always grateful still for that experience because it was um, yeah, it I was really lucky to get it. And I still lean on a lot of mentors that still work there and um and kind of kind of reach out to, but um, yeah, everything. Um, and still there's so much I've left been you know left to learn. So um, but yeah, huge seeing how the big brands do it is a pretty awesome experience.

Jay Greenwood 6:44

Yeah, I think yeah, it's just when you compare it to sort of I guess what we're going on to now, like massive brands, and now we talk about sort of creating an own brand. So when was the moment for you? You know, you're working, you've got a great career. So when do you start thinking, oh maybe I'll do something else? Like, how does that thought start trickling in? And where do you go from that thought to an action?

Fliss Newland 7:05

Uh, I don't know whether this give you the long story or the short story here. I I was working in London for about five years from Andalise, and I was really wanting a little bit more. I was getting a bit itchy to like, I want to do something a little bit different or push myself out of my comfort zone. And I knew, well, I fought to be moved to Asia. So I fought for a job in um to lead their e-commerce business for Malaysia and Singapore because I knew that, and I was told that Cabries and our brands over in Southeast Asia are a lot less um mature. So it felt like it's like, right, how am I gonna start getting the experience to be able to do my own thing in like five years' time? And I remember writing myself a plan. I was like, how are you gonna do it? So I thought I'd go to Asia, which I did go to Asia, but I thought I'd find a brand in Asia or some new the next kombucha or something and bring it and launch it in the UK. But that didn't happen, but it was sort of the start of the journey for me of like, let's get out of the comfort zone, let's look out the box and like make a bit of a plan for myself. It was um I'm a I'm a vegan through the course of pink on disease. I I um became a vegan, which is one of the kind of biggest changes in my life, really personally. And it it had started to sort of, although I love the the brands, I love the people I work with, but for me, on like a deeper personal level, it had started to kind of grate on me, you know, selling dairy milk but not eating milk. I felt like a bit of a hypocrite. So I more and more was like, no, you know, I need to do something more aligned with my purpose. And then I can't even claim it, Jay. I got a tap on the shoulder pretty much about a vegan sweetie brand that had sort of um had been around 40 years, um, that sort of lost its way. And would I be interested in taking it on? So it actually, although there was lots of manifesting and talking and making plans, it really kind of fell into my lap, this product. And the product was so incredible. The this gummy, the gummies that we are now wild things, um rebranded to wild things, were half the sugar without using sweeteners or additives or preservatives. So as natural as you can get, organic certified, and tasted good. I was like, boom. I mean, I I felt, and I still feel like I struck gold because this product, which I cannot claim, was just amazing. It just needed um a bit of a tweak in terms of the positioning um and the branding. Um, so that is kind of what forced me after kind of years of taking kind of baby steps towards that um that kind of journey of running my own thing. It kind of was the moment that shoved me off the cliff, was like, here's an amazing product. Do you want to give this a go? And I and I knew I'd kick myself if I didn't. So it wasn't really an option. I was like, hell yeah, let's do it.

Jay Greenwood 9:38

And I want to dig into that sort of maybe emotion when you saw that um product suddenly sort of came to you. Was it immediately like, yes, this makes complete sense? Or was there a moment of like, oh, maybe, maybe not? Like, how was that sort of like feeling and thought process around pursuing that?

Taking Over A Vegan Sweet Brand

Fliss Newland 9:53

I at this stage, and I think I missed a bit of this out, I had probably DM'd on LinkedIn a load of cool challenger brands. I had spent kind of final stage of joining different challenges and startups. And I was kind of like, I kind of made the decision that I was so at this stage like gagging to get into this space that it was actually a bit of a no-brainer. I was just so excited. I when I heard it was all the boring stuff, like that technically, you know, is a company acquisition. We were really just taking it off their hands, or I was taking it off their hands, but it was I I I maybe I'm also a bit reckless and I'm I'm quite I'm up for risk, but I um thought it was just a no-brainer. I was like, this suite is brilliant, tastes great, amazing label, it's really unique. Um, and it's being produced. I mean, I think half of the challenge of these kind of great food brands is going from kitchen to kind of concept and being able to be scaled and stuff. So I felt, God, all the all the hard work, in my opinion, had been done. So I don't I don't think I really hesitated, Chair. I was like, this is it. I felt like it was a bit of a sort of spooky, kind of perfect siding doors moment for me. I'm like, my whole background's confectionery, it's a vegan business. I was like, game on.

Jay Greenwood 11:03

Nice. I want to dig into you said that the opportunity fell onto your lap, but how did you position, like, how did you create that opportunity fall into your lap? Like, what had you done? What conversations you'd been having to, I guess, make that kind of luck come your way?

Fliss Newland 11:17

I think it's well, my experience is just chewing the ear off everyone that you know what you want to do, what you're about, what motivates you, what you're passionate about. And like, I think it's um, I I love, I always say I'm a bit witchy, and I do think I'm still a bit witchy, but it's not hocus pocus kind of superstitious stuff. I think manifesting is just about putting yourself out there, being vulnerable, and saying, like, I want to do this, that like it always takes as soon as you start saying this stuff, you are just it's amazing. Somebody speak to someone, someone knows someone that wants to go for a coffee with you, and then it maybe takes the the 20 sort of failed avenues, or maybe the avenues that didn't quite get there for the one conversation where it was actually my brother-in-law. I I he always says to me, he's coming in for his royalties at some point. It was my brother-in-law who was at a wedding who spoke to the previous owner, and he rang me the next day and said, Flis, this feels so a bit of you. It's sweet, it's vegan, it's this, you know, it's it's looking for an owner. And and therefore, I think all of my different um chattering to people whenever I I could, probably for the last five years before um this came along, it was um it kind of came to fruition. So I think if you don't ask, you don't get, and if you don't tell people also what you're about and you know what you're interested in, then um these things don't really come um in your lap in this example.

Jay Greenwood 12:35

Yeah, completely agree with that. So going back to the serial conversation we're having before, I sort of was just talking to everyone, and somehow from that the circle got smaller and smaller to introduce to someone who specialized in the exact thing for like years and years that I've been looking for, and I was like, how on earth is this person is like the dream person? So yeah, completely agree with that approach. So we've now gone from you know, we have a product, but wild things is an incredible, exciting brand. So like how did you learn about sort of the brand process and how did you think about what the brand was and what you wanted it to stand for?

Making Luck Through Talking

Fliss Newland 13:08

Uh we well, I had a gut feel, and there's not a gut feel, I'm no, I'm no Einstein to say that like lower sugar sweets that are natural, I felt would be a really great fit for parents and kids. So it was like, oh, this feels really, it feels like um, you know, a lot of sweets out there. If you look at the market, the top six selling sweet brands, um, Haribo, Squashies, Maynards Bassett. They're really great fun, colourful. So everyone's like joke anywhere. Oh dear. I love it. Um I had a bit of a gut feel that parents would be really interested in a sweetie that was tasty but way less sugar. I'm talking 35% less sugar than bears' fruit snacks, so like significantly less sugar, but without crap and without narsies and weird sweeteners added. So that didn't, I don't think that took a uh genius. But the first step that I took while once the sweets were mine were consumer research and like relentless, kind of just as much as we I could do afford in terms of getting to the consumer. So trying to um basically speak to as many parents as possible. I I kind of got different panels of mums. I'm my god mum um is an ex-consumer expert, so I persuaded Auntie Allison to come out of retirement and help out. Um, Jen Spur, who is a mentor and now is a fractional part-time CMO for Wild Things, um, was a huge mentor in me and us helping kind of get different panels of mums and we asked them about everything in snacks and and sweets, and it affirmed our um well, I learned loads there about parenting and the challenges of parenting and how much parents have on their plate. But one thing that came through really clearly was what we had wasn't in the market, and that there was a clear demand for it. That parents felt that they want, they had this tension where parents want to give their kids sweets. They know that it's fun and it's exciting and it's a part of childhood. Um, plus they don't want to deny them fern at a party or whatnot and make these rules. Um, but they feel really guilty about the artificials and the sugar. So having this really special product that was both natural and low sugar was uh, you know, it just suddenly it really made sense. So um, so many juicy insights, even from speaking to those mums, and I still through the process of them going through the rebranding, and even now we'll lean on that that that group and ask them what they think. Um, but it kind of started like that, just initial kind of in-depth consumer research.

Jay Greenwood 15:44

And what was the like insights to go straight down that route to sort of gather that research? Like, what was it? It was about your previous career that you know the value and that to sort of position yourself, and then how did you navigate doing that effectively?

Researching Parents And Treat Tension

Fliss Newland 15:59

I I think everything comes back to the consumer. I don't again, I don't think that I'm a genius for saying this. I also felt when you're a big, big company with big brands, there's a lot more guardrails, and you kind of you you you end up launching innovation because you can, not because there's a really clear consumer demand. I personally think it's a space where people you can't do enough consumer research. I don't think we've done enough consumer research, but that that was already going to be my most immediate first step. Is like we need to get as many many insights and speak to many consumers as possible. I was also conscious I wasn't a parent, so I know parents, I've spoken to every single parent I can through that. This process still, all I mates who've got kids are still ambassadors and supporters in their own way, but um I needed to understand myself before we got into the rebranding process, which I'm sure we'll come on to. Um, firstly, really understanding and getting under the skin of the consumer and how they live their life, what their weekends look like versus their weekdays. Um, and and it all really started to form our really key kind of fit into that. Um, but but yeah, I think I think it was always going to be the first step, like before we do anything, let's just speak to the consumer and as much as possible get them to help us inform the pack format, the pat, you know, and the positioning and and obviously our branding and our name and everything we've done is been very deliberate off the back of those insights that we got. Um in terms of the key, key bits that we found is that this kind of group of parents now, so parents with kids between four and 12 today are actually like a really interesting bunch in that they've lived through savage diet, awful toxic culture of like nothing tastes as good as skinny feels and special K diets to fit into dress sizes and all that crap, which they don't want to put on their kids. So they're a really, I think, inspiring generation of parents that are like cutting off this ends here, these body image image stuff ends here. So they don't want to perpetuate these kind of like diet cultures, e.g. So with sweets, it's quite it could be quite an emotive space to say you don't want to get into the point of bad foods and good foods. Actually, what they're about is about balance and saying like the right foods like for the right time. So at a kid's party or at a trick or treat, it's a great time to have sweets, and that is sort of like an yeah, it's it's about permissibility in those moments, as opposed to straight banning. Um, so yeah, that and that's kind of what is informed world things, is that we are, I never like to talk about guilt. I I think that parents have got enough to worry about um raising children, then bloody sweets. So I hate saying guilt or guilt-free. It's not about guilt, it's all about fun. Um, and we are, I never want we we are the best in the game, I've I believe my sweet is the best in the game for sweets in terms of sugar and um um the fact that we're not artificial, but we are not an apple, we're not to be made to eat for breakfast. We are made where there is fun, family fun, family nights in or parties, festivals. That's what Wild Things is made for. Um, but this all came through the insights of speaking to various parents.

Jay Greenwood 19:06

And I want to dig into sort of building the brand from those insights, but first I want to focus on how do you effectively um get those insights from those groups? Is it as simple as I just grab like 10 people in a room and just ask them questions, or is there a structure or process there so I've gets the most value from that time with those people?

Fliss Newland 19:24

This one we'd really need my auntie Alison to answer.

Jay Greenwood 19:27

Okay.

Fliss Newland 19:28

No, but I can help with the bits I've learned. So, one thing I'd say with consumer research is it's free. Speak to anyone, anywhere, anytime. I would linger, go into stores firstly. You will learn so much if your category, like understand your category, understand your bay, understand your position in store, look at those shelves. What is that range? What where can you see? I mean, with wild things, you've been quite deliberate with colour, which I'll come on to it, but how are you going to differentiate on that shelf? Because ultimately, I think the large part of your success is will you sell off that shelf next to all your competitive sets? So you can go and linger around shops and just be that weirdo. I go and speak to people at the shelf edge. Hey, why did you pick up that sweetie and not this sweetie? What do you mind speaking to me for two minutes? You might get eight people look at you weird and walk off, but you might get one that will sit and talk to you. And that in itself is free. So be a weirdo, go to stores, take in whatever you can. And if you're feeling brave, speak to people at the shelf edge. I now do that same lingering when wild things is on the shelf, which is even more embarrassing to say, Hey, I saw you put this in your basket, or I saw you didn't put my sweet in your basket. Why? But anyway, that I think there's loads you can do without spending a penny. What I did um specifically with the help of Auntie Alison, my my my um god mum, she helped us get panels together. And it was qualitative research, so not quantitative, kind of like you can't add it up, but to get these kind of nuggets of insights, we just got people talking. So, how do you get people really comfortable? Setting up the right environment, cups of tea, biscuits, explaining it's a really safe space, um, explaining that we just want to get to your life, and you don't, you've got to be really careful, you don't drill straight into what we would talk about. Hey, what price you spend for this? People, people don't really work that way. It's about having really interesting discourse. Like, what does life look like to you? How are you feeling? What's a Monday like for you as a mum? Um, what's a Saturday look? And you get all these like juicy little bits that come through. And we used to get really funny stuff about when we started talking about sweets and what you know, what do you find as good and bad and routine and treat? And we had all these insights about I try really hard, and then the dad on on a Saturday takes them up, they come back with blue tongues, or something about I hide the suites up high, and then I hear the creak of the chair being pulled, and kids are getting the but that type of like real life stuff, I think you just gotta get people talking. So we I I um gave all of the the five mums that helped us across three panels a 50 quid Amazon voucher, which is I can tell you because I've seen the budgets of the Mondeleese type um concealer research, is really. nothing just to get some incredible um insights um and yeah so that that that was kind of how i i would do it and um i think then it's just about recording it distilling it getting themes getting into a place um and i think qualitative research it's like um it's one of these weird things i think you obviously you literally can't quantify it's the whole point but like those little bits is almost for you and and kind of really helps guide you as a founder and maybe affirm something you believed or or disprove something you know maybe maybe busts some myths you might have about consumers and about the category um it you can't exactly stick it on a deck and go this is why wild things is going to fly but it does give you that reassurance and that proof of concept um that I think is really important before you step any further into this journey which which can cost you a lot of money and time um better to course correct at the very beginning.

Jay Greenwood 22:54

Nice and listening to all if you have like I'm just wondering if you look at like your sort of achievements now do you think sort of your past career like non-list was crucial to getting to where you are now or do you think it's maybe or is it a combination of your willingness to ask and you know be open and you know get as much help and advice you can from people or the blend of both. I'm just curious because listening to all I've just seen like I've heard people who you know had to go learn the hard way to make these mistakes like change things after a period of time realizing the packaging's not there or something like that or the meshing's not there. But this is all kind of like well thought out from the very beginning.

Fliss Newland 23:29

I I think it is I think there's so much that I've learned that I remember like a great friend of mine has a a really cool uh protein milkshake called grounded and my he's a mate of mine from uni Bryn he left uni and did it immediately he'll tell he's a best friend of mine and he will tell you I was like I was like always just wanting to ask him about it because I was so kind of viscerably jealous and excited and loving it for him and he did it straight from uni. So I remember those early days there's stuff like just like stuff at Mondelee's that was kind of a rote training to us about new line forms and barcodes and samples and some stuff that kind of getting you to market that I am so lucky that I just have kind of etched in my in me now that I don't even know that I know you know so that promotions and rebates and and all this kind of like I would call it the hygiene stuff. I think the difference or the thing that will change the game for this brand is actually much more of what you said the latter which is about curiosity and re like this network of challenger brands is epic. Like everybody wants to help each other. It's this huge just positive vibe of everyone like we're in the trenches together kind of all of the Davids versus a few Goliaths like let's do it. And I think asking anyone that will help asking for help Googling it chat GPTing it there's always someone you said earlier like someone might know someone who might know someone who can help. So I do think that spirit of firstly doing something you really believe in because it's going to be so bloody tough like even wild things like we are so early so let's have this conversation in like five or 10 years. But like resilience is everything in this game isn't it and energy is everything.

Investing In Distinctive Branding

Jay Greenwood 25:07

So you can only really get that if you like massively believe in the in the proposition that you're and the product you're what you're working for and it aligns with your purpose but then being like ridiculously curious and just put yourself out there plus failing fast I think um so it's probably a little bit of a um a combi a combination of the both but um yeah not defense six so we we've got this like product we've got the the insights from the brand how long do you spend from that to actually creating the brand and what are there any things that maybe you thought would be easy or you know really uh understandable but they've actually become far more difficult than you realised in that process with the with build with building and forming the brand you mean yeah but like is in taking it from an idea concept of in your head to actually right let's get this on like in the packaging get this created so it's ready package like products ready to go see I see for for the branding we work with a fantastic agency called how and how and I took a lot of time trying to find the right agency I mean it was the single biggest investment getting really amazing branding which I was also keen to do because I felt like in my view your brand I by the way I'm no brand specialist if anything I'm more salesy but I've done a bits and bobs of brand I cannot claim to be so therefore I knew it was a bit of a gap for me.

Fliss Newland 26:23

I secondly felt like hopefully if you invest in a really great brand that's distinctive it's gonna jump off the shelf it's got scope to take you into like various MPDs in the future and you know wild things to me I can already we've got six SKUs. I could think of 20 innovations even just in that space not just pack formats but you know bugs and slugs and birds and bees and stuff but it's a really expansive brand that I feel could last you know for hundreds of years. So I I felt that it was a scary amount of investment to get an amazing agency on it and to to crack it with us. But I think it was worthwhile because I feared if you kind of scrimp on the brand then it's kind of like pouring petrol into a shit car. It's how far can it possibly go even if you pour all the petrol in the world. So the the actual process I mean they're pretty um quick but it does take time. I mean we did from kind of brand positioning with all the insights we've got and where you know my vision of it and the product um brand positioning to naming and they had a load of creative ideas and that was a really fun time because actually there's an agency are doing the hard work they're coming to me and saying this here's six versions of what could answer this tension for parents and how do you appeal to parent and kid was a big one. So that was just a really fun time. I think the whole process took around three or four months which is pretty speedy um to get to a place of like this is how our packaging's looking and in that time we ran that back through some consumer insights I I paid for a kind of scrappy you guys survey of what people thought of it and also obviously ran it through all my panel of mums um who were you trust me people will give you an opinion if you ask for it. So which is quite savage I think particularly for creatives when they work really hard as I but it was really really useful to do so um yeah then we had a beautiful brand and though I sound very biased but I think so um and a very distinctive and different and kind of edgy brand um ready to go after about four months of that kind of all um all in all process with the AC.

First Sales Through Trade Shows

Jay Greenwood 28:21

Nice. And now how do we get it how do we get that first sale? How do we go from right what was that moment where you took it somewhere said like will you buy this? How did that process go? And yeah what was that moment like for you?

Fliss Newland 28:33

I so we kind of launched it to like B2B I was always I was told by challenges um that lunch the show in the XL was the biggie and it was really touch and go if we were going to make it but we were really adamant too and that was a another quite big investment to be at that lunch trade show but every buyer really from most sectors will be there plus all the core brands you look around it's just a you know you you would have been Jay but it's um it's a masterclass in in epic branding. So we launched it there it was sort of edible samples and mock embarrassing kind of blow up puff packs that weren't really real and I was so embarrassing having to like smack people's hands if they tried to take one. But um it was really important me to get there because that was getting our name out and getting the brand out and it was my mate Bryn that I spoke about that said if you're going to turn up at this show like go big or go home. Yeah so instead of being in the small kind of startup area in the corner which is still expensive by the way you still got um we took a proper kind of four meter by two meter base brought our brand in its glory which it is sort of very punk if you see it in its in yeah it in blown up um and it felt like we just made a right like little kind of ripple at that point and there's still I think I we just did our second lunch about a month ago um and it's quite cool the different connections first you see how far we'd come in that year um but even it it just plants a seed and even if that is a seed with a big retailer but you keep in touch um then that is everything you can't really I don't know how else you get that but that's what we did and then we started getting early distributors um I'm kind of working on getting more independence and our my big kind of first I would say kind of like well it is our national kind of listing was a car a cardo which went live in June I pitched for all of the brand incubator programs. So uh Cardo have the roots program which I pitched for back in the October and there was a long process and then they agreed to launch us and we launched us in June. Um so yeah that first half of our year was about getting as many distributors as many independents doing as many samplings once you got those independents um to kind of keep us there um and then a kind of bit of a crescendo with the launch for a cardo in June.

Jay Greenwood 30:47

And one thing I'm getting from this conversation is like sort of very bold daring decisions but seem like critical points in the journey. So were there like that lunch event right so was there any sort of like decision making framework that you approach that because it's like big investment.

Fliss Newland 31:01

How did you have one have like the confidence to execute on that was there any way you thought about how you'd like come to that decision at all I I had advice on lunch honestly that like this was the big one to be at so therefore it wasn't like there was one a month that I had to like really make a critical decision on. I felt it was it was pretty good timing. We wanted a launch ban in January everyone had said to me oh that's the big if you're gonna do one do it. And also I do think okay it is a lot of money but it's not going to be the break or break of the company so I kind of feel like do anything once and then just learn quickly and and and better bear in mind I did a terrible trade fair it wasn't as expensive but I did a terrible trade fair the few weeks after um I don't know whether to name and shame them but it was awful and it was like tumbleweed and I just thought brush yourself off it's fine. So I'm talking about this is a really pivotal moment and it was a really successful launch for us and we got loads out of it. But there was also I think you just got to go give stuff a go and then very quickly pivot it's kind of how I'm at least trying um not overthink it. I think your job as a founder is almost just it's actually just decision making constant permanent decision making and the quicker you can make those decisions and the better you quality you can make those decisions then the better it'll be for you and you know the brand and the team but I'm not saying I'm getting them all right at all but I think also we can't wait around and stew over everything are we or there's won't we won't make any any moves.

Jay Greenwood 32:29

Nice. And I want to talk about Carla now that they get approached by loads of brands.

Fliss Newland 32:34

What was it about your pitch that sort of made them think that right you were the right brands take their chance how do you structure it how do you position yourself to them as like right you need to get us on board I I mean I bang on the same drum the the the work on our our unique brand positioning in the market was really done before we got the name that was about right there's nothing there for families that is well look at the big brands they're all fun and colourful and and but they're full of sugar and artificials. And then the healthier brands like the well anything I mean there's there's a really one other organic player it's beautiful but it's white packaging and anything that's healthier or low sugar is either very kind of bland boring cutesy packaging it's not very cool or it's um the gourmet kind of like candy kitten style is lovely but it's very adult. So our whole thing was like no one is doing a brand that is as fun and cool for kids as a Skittle or a Hatrybo but is reassuring parents by the way we're as low as sugar we're natural. So I felt like it was just like give me a chance to show that we how we're unique and and even the decision of being like we are going to just obsessively think and think communicate and appeal to parents was something that I think is felt a bit like people are like isn't that limiting they're nice sweets can't anyone eat sweets I'm like yeah that would be great but I think coming to retailers with a very unique proposition when they have so much and you're new like it it is important. So everything we do in our marketing is to that specific demographic. I like oh I only do stuff for that if someone goes hey can you give me some samples for an event that's a sport fun run or I'm like no no unless it's families with kids between four and 12, we don't even entertain it. So I think just being showcasing why the the formulation the product is so different and nothing under categories like it and then showcasing the exact consumer and shopper that we're going after and why we don't think that their range is um has anything like us is is sort of how how we do it the whole time and whether it's a cardo or an independent farm shop or a chain of um ice rinks or it's um eventually hopefully to Tesco.

Jay Greenwood 34:44

Incredible incredible I want to finish off on one final question I want to ask you about what has been the most unexpected thing you found joy from becoming a founder versus like sort of leaving the startup world sorry leaving the corporate world to become a startup and then also maybe what's something you didn't expect to miss from leaving the corporate world to now becoming a startup founder uh I can I start with a slightly more negative one so I I I don't miss I used to sleep quite well I've always thought I'd been quite good at sleeping it's from a place of excitement mostly but like it's like when it's your baby it's literally always on your mind and I think my my partner my fiance is like oh bless him and we just speak about wild things all day long because I think about it at 3am I think about it all the time I think about it when I wake up it's like Juracell bunny excitement thinking about it.

Fliss Newland 35:31

So it's not always bad but God I miss it not being on my mind 24 25 eight let's say and the bit that I think is the unexpected joy. So all the stuff I mean I haven't even mentioned the co-op incubator that we just launched on like landing that was massive like this year breaks BidFoods like this year has been better than I could ever imagine. But the most unexpected bit for me is that I've built the most fab for like amazing team of people who we're now a group of five of us if I then also include Jen and Daisy who help us at freelance I now like because it's that we're startup scale up like I literally know all of their partners I know their kids their kids have been all of them have been kind of like influences in our content sampled our sweets Lucy and Sophie who work in the office with me both of their mums are kind of like brand ambassadors one's actually done a sampling for us my sisters the level of like it takes a village and like my mates obviously like they've been incredible and my family been incredible it's sort of my baby it's like they were always going to be incredible but the fact that my team's family is like it feels like ours and I just feel so lucky that I come to work I don't think it feels like coming to work. It just feels like the most fun exhilarating knackering um thing that we're all doing and growing so I think the unexpected bit was I didn't expect that my team would end up feeling like family and like really um get involved to this extent um and it's joy it's so joyful it's been it's been brilliant. So it's nice actually talking about it because it makes you stop and reflect which we never do enough do we but um yeah it's great.

Closing Thanks And Listener Support

Jay Greenwood 37:07

Amazing that's perfect point about this I just want to say one what an amazing like story and also I think just the value of that it's like you know people like to think startups and you know just jump in and don't think about it but like but it seems like you know like following a process and a structure like really can create a really effective brand and also I just love people who talk about their companies with such passion and joy and it makes me excited. So thank you so much for coming on and yeah just getting me like inspired so thank you so much. Appreciate it's really kind so great to chat thank you for having me on as always guys thank you so much for listening really appreciate the support and if you guys like it and you're enjoying what you're listening to please like and subscribe and write a review would really appreciate it. Again we'll be back doing this weekly and yeah if you want to know more about Slassing Food business head to wwwjgreenwood.com but guys as always thank you it'd be great