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"How can we bring emotion back to a category that's become entirely functional? Less about guilt, more about making it irresistible." Not all berries are equal. That's the starting point for this episode with Isla Haslam from Driscoll's, the world's largest berry company, a household name across the US, and until recently, almost unknown to UK shoppers. Isla took an unusual route into FMCG, via PR agencies, industry bodies for eggs, tea and red meat, and a stint working across British berry growers, before landing at Driscoll's UK during its 2024 brand launch. In this conversation, she explains what actually goes into "Driscoll's genetics" (spoiler: it involves people with paintbrushes acting like bees), why fresh produce is one of the last truly unbranded categories in the supermarket, and why that's a huge opportunity rather than a problem. We also get into: Why Driscoll's spent 100 years building a business on product alone - and what it takes to build the story nowThe difference between building a brand and building a category, and why Isla thinks about the whole supply chain, not just Driscoll's shareBerries as a cultural moment & status symbol, "berry girl summer", and how brands should (and shouldn't) try to ride itWhy Driscoll's is deliberately staying out of the GLP-1 and UPF health-claims arms raceWhat FMCG marketers get wrong about fresh produce, and what fresh produce people could learn from FMCGAs always, we close with the question we ask every guest: what makes a brand of tomorrow?

"It's not about growing faster, it's about growing stronger." What do you do when a surgeon tells a teenage professional footballer he'll simply have to learn to live with chronic pain? If you're Thomas Hal Robson-Kanu, you ignore him - and watch your dad turn whole turmeric roots, pineapple cores and watermelon rind into a kitchen blend that becomes your secret weapon for the next decade of a Premier League career. Ten years after that first golden shot fixed his knee, Robson-Kanu and his father decided to bring it to market as The Turmeric Co. and found that no beverage manufacturer in the UK or Europe would touch the process they needed, so they built their own manufacturing unit behind his dad's house instead. That manufacturing capability became the foundation for a second brand, Raw Hydrate, and eventually for a deal that turned heads across FMCG: in 2025, AG Barr, the FTSE-listed group behind Irn-Bru, bought a stake in the business for £15m. In this episode, we cover: From the operating table to the pitch- the recovery, the "just live with it," and the decade-long dive into functional ingredients that followedThe kitchen blend nobody was meant to sell - why it took ten years and a shift in the market before "dad's remedy" became a companyWhat "fresh" juice actually means - the supply chain conversation that revealed how old most bottled juice really isBuilding the manufacturer before the brand - why every UK co-packer rejected the process, and the bespoke unit they built insteadRetail as a fight for survival - what it actually took to displace category giants for shelf spaceRaw Hydrate and the hydration gap - spotting the space between synthetic sachets and sugar-loaded sports drinksThe AG Barr deal - how the conversation started, and what he needed to know about a partner before giving up majority controlFootball, McDonald's and the sponsorship problem

‘It's very foolhardy to just want more distribution without making sure every place you're in is successful.. If ROS is good, distribution will follow’ It started with a burrito bar in Dublin, and a nagging feeling that nobody was making a corn tortilla good enough. So Phil Martin got on a plane to Mexico with no plan, called a tour company, and asked if they knew any corn farmers who'd teach him what they knew. They introduced him to a family in Puebla, and that's where Blanco Niño really began. Eleven years on, Blanco Niño is in restaurants and hotels across 19 European markets and the Middle East, and on shelves in Whole Foods, Co-op, Sainsbury's and Waitrose. But it didn't start in retail- it started in food service, because that's what the capital and the learning curve allowed. In this episode, Phil walks through the entire build: crowdfunding a tortilla factory, the brutal pivot forced by a 95% sales drop in 2020, and how food service selling ("solving a problem") is a completely different game to retail selling ("selling features"). We also get into: Why Phil turned down faster retail distribution to protect rate of saleHis hiring process - including why a candidate being rude to a waiter is an instant noThe flat "tree" mental model he uses instead of a traditional org chartWhat he wishes he'd known about burnout and hustle culture earlierFair warning: this one's got a fair bit of colourful language - don't play it in front of the kids.

"I keep telling the team, every day is our most complex day we've ever had and our simplest day ever we're gonna have again." What do you do after growing a company from 100 to 650 people, building the number four energy drink in America, and landing an investment from Keurig Dr Pepper? If you're John Herman, you call your wife and tell her you want to quit. A random unmarked phone call later, John was building a business plan over a weekend with a newly sober Tom Holland (yes, that Tom Holland)- and Bero was born. Two and a half years on, the premium non-alcoholic beer brand is brewing on two continents, sold nationally in Target, partnered with Aston Martin, and projecting to more than double sales this year. In this episode, we cover: From C4 to starting again - John's path from apparel merchant to President of Nutrabolt, and why walking away from a 650-person company was the easy partCelebrity as topspin, not foundation - how Bero uses Tom Holland's involvement authentically, and why the brand has to stand on its ownDesigning a brand that feels like it's always existed - "I never wanna see blue," gold cans, and building for the pub rather than the wellness aisleLaunching in the UK early - shipping beer from Colorado across the Atlantic on a P&L that made no sense, and why the UK's on-trade momentum made it worth itThe shandy gamble - a new can, new formula and new marketing that looked like a horrible idea on paper, and became unbelievably incremental (70% net-new customers)What US brands get wrong about the UK - flavour palettes, competitive sets, and why "your brand is your brand, but your playbook definitely needs to evolve"Saying no - deciding what's a distraction versus what's the brand's next stagePlus John's answer to the question we ask every guest: what makes a brand of tomorrow? If you're building in beverage, eyeing a transatlantic launch, or just want a masterclass in knowing what to say yes to, press play.

"What Will and I had was an audience that was curated to give something a go... our job was to make that thing good enough that they'd be willing to have it twice." Will and James built an audience online long before they built a coffee brand. When they launched Rodd's, a plant-based ready-to-drink coffee, they forecast 22,500 bottles for the launch. They sold 100,000 in two weeks and then found out the hard way what FMCG lead times actually mean when you've got nothing left on shelf and a five-week wait for more stock. In this episode, Will and James talk through what it's really like building an FMCG brand from a content-creation background: the audience trust that got people to try the product once, the NPD process that runs on gut feel and internal taste panels rather than boardroom data decks, and the moment "rate of sale" stopped being a retailer buzzword and started being the thing that kept them up at night. We also get into: What 75% of new-to-category Sainsbury's shoppers tells them about where growth is really coming fromSampling 10,000 bottles at Wimbledon, and why in-person reactions changed how they think about marketingThe moment they realised social media couldn't be their only channelHow creator brands need to look past hype and think long term Why hiring a CEO changed how they make decisions

"At each stage of the business, your identity has to evolve. From individual contributor, to manager, to leader. Most founders miss the moment when that shift needs to happen." Deepak Ravindran co-founded Oddbox, the UK's leading ugly produce subscription service, and scaled it from a church hall side project to a nine-figure valuation in under a decade. But the real story isn't the growth. It's what happened to him inside it. In this episode, Deepak talks honestly about what hypergrowth actually feels like from the inside: going from 25 to 100 people in a year, becoming the bottleneck in your own business, and the moment he realised his leadership style hadn't kept pace with the company he'd built. He also gets into the stuff that rarely gets talked about- the identity crisis that comes when your business becomes you, the Sunday dread that crept in at Series B, and how a 360 review and a coach helped him surface the blind spots that were quietly holding the business back. Now working as a founder coach, Deepak helps consumer brand founders scale themselves - not just their businesses. In this conversation he shares what he sees again and again in the founders who most need help but are least likely to ask for it. In this episode: What breaks (operationally and personally) when you scale fastThe shift from startup operator to organisational leader - and why it's so hard to spot in real timeWhy exit interviews and investor feedback were the making of him as a leaderThe difference between coaching and mentoring - and why it mattersWhat "contentment through values alignment" actually looks like in practice

"The journey was about 10 times longer than I ever thought it would be, 10 times harder." Joanna Jensen built Child's Farm at her kitchen table after struggling to find products for her daughter's eczema-prone skin - and grew it into the UK's market-leading baby and family skincare brand before selling four and a half years ago. She's since become an angel investor, chair of the EIS Association, and author of Making Business Child's Play. In this episode, Joanna talks bootstrapping versus raising money, why most founder financial forecasts are "abysmal," and the real mechanics of EIS/SEIS tax relief for angel investors. She's blunt about founder mindset, sharper still about LinkedIn oversharing, and unflinching on what building a business actually costs a family. Topics covered: Starting Child's Farm from a kitchen-table problem to market leadershipWriting Making Business Child's Play Why she has zero patience for founders who complain about hard workBootstrapping first: why self-funding before raising protects your equity and your credibilityForecasting properly - three-year plans, 26-week cashflow, and why you should double whatever number you think you needRed and green flags she looks for before investingThe difference between an investor and an advisor - and why founders confuse the twoEIS and SEIS explained: how the schemes work and why they matter for UK angel investmentAI in FMCG: where it genuinely helps founders, and where it can't replace proprietary data or judgement

"Working hard means different things to different people... you just have to discuss expectations before you go into business with someone." Vivien Wong is co-founder of Little Moons, the mochi ice cream brand that became one of the most talked-about FMCG success stories of the last decade. From a small family factory in west London to supermarket shelves across Europe - and one of the most remarkable viral moments in UK food and drink history. In this episode, Ruth and Vivien skip the origin story and get straight into the scaling journey: the decisions, the people, the processes (that didn't exist) and what it really felt like inside a brand growing at warp speed. They cover: When Little Moons stopped feeling like a startup - and what triggered that shiftHow to hire heads of department: timing, level and the cost of getting it wrongThe TikTok moment - what actually happened when demand went vertical overnightWhy going viral isn't the hard part, turning it into a sustainable business is16 years of co-founding with her brother Howard: what's worked, what's nearly broken, and the personality test that changed how they communicateBringing in private equity and a CEO and what Vivienne chose to hold ontoThe honest truth about burnout, leadership under pressure and why she still loves the productSubscribe, rate and review wherever you get your podcasts. And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone building a brand of their own.

"Every inch of shelf space is rent. And that rent is paid in velocity." Kara Rubin spent a decade at Whole Foods overseeing grocery for the entire Northeast region before moving to the brand side as VP at Just Water, where she helped take the company from the brink of bankruptcy to $25m in revenue. She now runs a consultancy with her business partner Ira, helping brands based outside the US navigate their entry into the American market. In this episode, the first in our mini-series on cracking the US, Kara gives UK brands a clear-eyed look at what they're actually walking into: Why the US is not one market, and what that means for logistics, distribution and channel strategyWhat a buyer at Whole Foods is actually evaluating — and why velocity is the only currency that mattersThe real timeline from first conversation to product on shelf (it's longer than you think)Why your UK backstory is probably neutral at best, and what actually builds credibility with US retailersCertifications, claims and regulatory pitfalls that catch international brands off guardWhether you can run a US business from the UK (short answer: no)When to hire a broker, and what a fractional sales lead looks like in the early daysPart one of our three-part series on launching in the US. Next up: Zachary DeAngelo of Rodeo CPG on the operational mechanics - brokers, margins, channel sequencing, and what the data actually tells you.

‘Sales cures all ails’ Zachary DeAngelo is the founder of Rodeo CPG, a US sales and broker agency that caps its portfolio at 30 brands and has worked with the likes of Huel on their US retail launch. Having founded and sold his own brands, including baby food company Little Duck Organics, Zach brings a founder's perspective to the notoriously complex US go-to-market. In this episode, the second in our mini-series on cracking the US, Zach gets into the operational detail that trips up most UK brands: How the US broker system actually works, why it exists, and why it often fails emerging brandsWhat Rodeo does differently - and why founder empathy is built into the modelThe margin maths you need to do before you spend a penny on launchHow US retail channels work: natural, molo, conventional, mass - and the right order to approach themThe Huel US story: product selection, innovation, and why great people made the differenceDTC as test-and-learn: what the data tells you, and what it doesn'tWhat separates founders who survive the hard years from those who don'tPart two of our three-part series on launching in the US. Kara Rubin covered the retail relationship and buyer psychology in episode one- go back and listen if you haven't already.

"In my opinion, what makes a brand of tomorrow? Founders, all the way." In this week’s episode we go inside Ocado's accelerator for early-stage food & drink- Ocado Roots with Genevieve Fitch. This is a practical, honest conversation about what it actually takes to grow on one of the UK's most data-rich platforms. What we cover: What Ocado Roots is, who it's for, and why Ocado built itWhy their most loyal, highest-spending customers are the ones putting challenger brands in their basketsWhat buyers are actually looking for - and the pitch mistake that kills most conversations before they startThe Ocado growth toolkit: what new brands should be doing in their first six months on shelfThe Buy Women Built and Gen M partnerships - and what Ocado is doing to drive visibility for underrepresented foundersWhat long-term brand potential actually looks like from a retailer's perspectiveIf you're building a food or drink brand and thinking about UK retail, or you work with brands who are, this one's for you.

"You don't know you've got resilience until you go through it." Toby Hoppy co-founded All Things Dairy with chef and content creator Tom Straker, building a brand that started with a viral butter video and has since grown into one of the most talked-about challenger brands in UK grocery. This is a conversation about what growth actually looks like when it's faster than you planned for... We cover: Why Toby knew nothing about dairy when he started - and why that turned out to be a superpowerHow a chef with 500 followers and a lockdown experiment became the foundation for a multi-SKU grocery brandThe cottage cheese launch and what happens when you're 4x your own forecastBuilding a creator-led marketing engine with zero paid socialWhy 60% of their customers in Sainsbury's are under 45, and what that means for category growthThe equity creator model: how they turned creators into genuine brand partnersThe US plan: butter first, New York restaurant next, and why cottage cheese isn't crossing the Atlantic yetWhere All Things Dairy goes next and why naivety is still a superpower If you're building in food and drink, obsessing over growth strategy, or just want to understand what a genuinely modern FMCG brand looks like from the inside - this one's for you.

"When we were bootstrapping and I was comparing myself to founders who'd raised a million before they'd put a product on shelf - there's no comparison. It's not like for like. Make your own path and enjoy it." Sarah Vachon, founder of Citizens of Soil, joins us for a conversation that covers a lot of ground - from commodity supply chains and regenerative agriculture to physical brand activations, D2C challenges, and building a business without compromising on values. What we cover: How a Greek family, a love of Spain, and a background in sustainability led Sarah to found Citizens of SoilWhy most olive oil on supermarket shelves is a shadow of what it should be - and what the commodity system has to do with itThe Olive Oil Club: how a simple subscription evolved into a discovery-led community modelThe Olive Oil Clubhouse pop-up - what worked, what didn't, and why she'd do it againWhy harvest date matters more than best before dateThe realities of D2C in 2026 How climate events are directly hitting her producers, and the importance of resilienceTaking impact investment seriouslyIf you've ever picked up a bottle of olive oil in a supermarket without thinking twice, this episode will change that.

“A good idea is worth more than a big budget.” What happens when you stop trying to drink less… and instead build something you can drink more of? In this episode, Ruth speaks to Tom Benn, founder of Future Chateau - a 5% wine designed for midweek rituals, not just Friday nights. After six years as “Deputy Squirrel” at Pip & Nut and early experience at Vita Coco, Tom spent five years developing a lower-alcohol wine that isn’t a compromise, it’s grown to be less alcoholic from the start. They explore: Why early-stage brands need emotional clarity, not big budgetsThe myth that low/no should cost lessHow poor innovation damages entire categoriesThe emotional stakes of founding your own brandWhy Slack might be killing productivityThe overlooked audience driving the mid-strength wine categoryRebranding in response to real customer insightModern luxury as “freedom without consequence”Why earned attention is the only sustainable growth strategy About Future Chateau Future Chateau is a 5% wine brand built around permission — giving people the ability to say yes to wine on nights they’d usually say no. Designed for midweek dinners, work drinks, and reopening cultural rituals without the nuclear hangover.

“You’ve got to be comfortable being uncomfortable.” What does it take to build chocolate differently? In this episode, Ruth speaks to Wilf Marriott, Founder & CEO of Islands Chocolate - a vertically integrated cocoa and chocolate brand working directly at source in St. Vincent and beyond. From aspiring professional cricketer to cocoa farmer and founder, Will shares the mindset shift that took him from chasing leather balls to challenging the global chocolate supply chain. They explore: Why discipline from sport translates into business resilienceWhy owning your supply chain changes everythingThe tension between ethics and price on the retail shelfTrade vs retail as growth leversWhy margin equals risk in FMCGThe power, and complexity, of building a family businessSlow, sustainable growth vs chasing rapid scaleWhether ethical supply chains can ever become the defaultIslands Chocolate’s mission is simple but ambitious: bold taste, bold character - rooted in sustainable agriculture. This is a conversation about doing things properly, even when it’s harder.