by Real Business - Thursday, 30th August 2007

The baby food industry is riddled with hazards. The legislation is rigid, security is tight, the risks are high. If the tiniest bug finds its way into a baby food product, where you or I would get a tummy ache, a baby might die.

This is why the sector is dominated by the big brands. Companies like Heinz can afford to spend millions ensuring that their products are repeatedly tested, boiled and zapped to make them “baby grade”. Plum Baby is a wholly different proposition: it is completely organic. There are no preservatives or artificial ingredients. But to take on these giants, I knew I had to be just as diligent. If a single nasty found its way into one of my jars, the big companies would be straight in there and squash me like a bug.

So I run the manufacturing like a military operation: raw materials get analysed to make sure they’re pure, and then tested at every stage down the line. While a lot of the smaller baby food companies have gone into the frozen food arena (to try to preserve nutritional content), I wanted to compete directly with the incumbent players in the chilled section. But unlike them, I’m not satisfied with selling empty calories in a pot. So instead of heating and reheating our products, we cook them just once, bringing the jars up to pasteurisation temperature. Then it’s in suspended animation and can be warmed up or served straight from the jar.

I realised the need for this product when I ran my cookery school, Purple Plum, and I taught parents how to prepare baby food. A lot of them wanted to give their kids healthier meals, but didn’t have time to make it all themselves. I started thinking it really was possible to produce ready-to-eat, top-quality baby food that tastes amazing. We make way more than just apple sauce. Beetroot, for example: yes, you can give it to your baby and yes, its poo will be bright red and that’s perfectly healthy. Plum Baby products contain everything from artichoke to pomegranate to basil – nutrient-rich superfoods that Cow & Gate would never dream of putting in their recipes. I’ve always been completely transparent about my products, even posting recipes on my website. That won’t detract from my sales, though. Health-conscious parents need a break from the constant blending.

Before I even had a product, the supermarkets were interested in the concept. My first meeting with a Sainsbury’s buyer resulted in Plum Baby being stocked in 200 stores and replacing their ownlabel brand. A few months later this was bumped up to 350 stores. Then came Waitrose, Boots, Tescos, lots of wholefood, independent stores like Fresh & Wild, and soon Asda and Morrisons.

The market is huge, but so are the pitfalls. It was tough raising the cash to begin with. I needed a big investment to cover the manufacturing costs. People didn’t want to touch the business because the product was so high-risk, and the lab tests cost a fortune. I remortgaged my house, then a friend of a friend put up £100,000. And then things got easier. Andrew Seth, ex-CEO of Lever Brothers, Mark Sherrington from SAB Miller and Martin Glenn, ex-president of PepsiCo, all invested heavily. A friend’s uncle brought the total to just over a million. We got a £100,000 small firms loan from the DTI and my husband left his job to become our commercial director. Seventy-five per cent of our spend went on R&D.

Our first six months in business have generated a staggering £2m turnover. It was never my intention to run a cottage industry supplying the odd health food shop, so things are going to plan. There hasn’t been any innovation in this arena for years, so I knew that Plum Baby would be a strong challenger to the dominant set. Along the way we’ve attracted top industry technical folk from Mars and the Camden & Chorleywood Food Research Association. Iconic brands like ours attract these people. We’ve been called the Innocent of baby food.

We appeal to so many demographics: the recipes speak to the foodies, and the organic ingredients attract the yummy mummies. We’ve launched our first fair-trade recipe, which gets the ethical market and generates a lot of press for the product. Plus we’ve got a green ethos – we’re a carbon-neutral company and we recycle everything (even our pencils are recycled printer cartridges). We’re going to notch up a £10m turnover next year, and mostly without advertising.

It’s been a complex and at times hideous journey. In a few years when I’ve made my millions, I think I’m going to become a Dragon on Dragons’ Den. I’ll be the nice one. Anyone who’s got the guts to go through all this deserves respect.

Interview by Rebecca Burn-Callander

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