A Plum Idea
What would you like to feed your baby? Nutrient-packed, deliciously tasty meals made from the finest organic superfoods, or baby rice that’s been pre-cooked then dehydrated and has about as much flavour and nutritional content as mushy cardboard?
It’s a bit of a no-brainer, but it took one woman’s conviction that babies deserve better - and that she could do better than the big name brands - to give consumers a genuinely healthy alternative.
That conviction has more than paid off for Susie Willis, left, founder of Plum Baby. Her range of organic baby meals has enjoyed 100 per cent year-on-year growth since its launch just two years ago, and has already secured 5.5 per cent of the massively competitive baby food market.
“The scale of propulsion has been phenomenal,” says Susie, 42.
“Last year we turned over £3.5 million and this year we have nearly doubled that with a projected turnover of £6 million.”
Old-fashioned passion
It’s Susie’s “old-fashioned passion”, as she calls it, that’s behind her brand’s jaw-droppingly speedy rise.
“It’s real food for babies, not just baby food,” she states. “Every single one of our dishes is packed with flavour and could be homemade, but it’s so much more than just the taste. All of them are full of the most incredible nutrients.
“Every spoonful of Plum Baby food matters. My message is: don’t feed, nourish.”
Eureka moment
Having previously worked for Jeffrey Archer, organising his infamous shepherd's pie and Krug soirees, and run her own cookery school, Susie had her eureka moment in 2004. After a gap of eight years she gave birth to her third child, Francesca, and took a look at what the supermarket shelves had to offer in the way of weaning foods.
“What I found was jars of so-called organic baby food that was incredibly processed. I just knew I could do it a hundred times better.”
Aptly enough, Plum Baby took nine months from conception to birth, when financial backers gave Susie the go-ahead based on her exhaustive business plan. Susie also invested heavily herself, remortgaging her home, investing her life savings and taking out a large bank loan.
The name of her company came rather more easily. “I wanted to call my third baby Plum but my husband poo-pooed it, so I snuck ‘plum’ into the name of my company instead,” she says.
When asked what particularly appealed to her about ‘plum’, Susie steps up eagerly to the descriptive challenge. “It just invokes such wholesomeness, such purity and positive health affirmation. It also makes people think of chubby baby cheeks and delicious, chubby baby bottoms.”
Her big break came when she secured a meeting with a buyer for Sainsbury’s through a brand consultant she knew. "I could have spent years touting my produce around the farmers' markets but here was a chance to really get Plum out there.
"The buyer said that it was like a breath of fresh air when I came in because my pitch came from the heart.
"I adore the fact that this food is making a difference and I think that came across. I'm no expert - I bring in the experts - but I know how to make bloody good baby food."
Superfoods
Susie cites the quality of the ingredients as one of the key factors placing Plum Baby above its competitors.
"We only use superfoods: organic ingredients that are bursting with nourishment and contain stronger nutritional values than a counterpart.
“Take broccoli and cauliflower. All the goodness is in the pigmentation so we use broccoli in our recipes as it offers so much more.”
And it seems that, far from their reputation as fussy eaters, babies are happy to embrace all sorts of tastes. “All of our lines sell equally well – we’ve never had to de-list a line, even beetroot, apple and artichoke! People looked at me as if I was mad when I suggested that one but then they tasted it and said, ‘Wow, it’s so beautiful!’."
Other flavours in the eclectic range include plum, pomegranate and guava; parsnip, apple and pea; and carrot and lentil with cheddar.
“Babies have twice as many tastebuds as we have and absolutely adore trying different flavours. It’s only when they become teenagers that they become more fussy and want boring food,” says Susie who, as a mother of three, knows a thing or two about feeding children.
Traditional skills
Susie tracked down the best of the best to help realise the Plum Baby dream. “We have an award-winning range of four-grain porridges. They include grains such as amaranth and quinoa that do the same job of gentle weaning as white baby rice but have a strong nutritional profile.
“We wanted millers who were able to put our vision into place and finally found some Bavarian cereal makers; traditional millers who take an artisan approach to grains and use old-fashioned skills.”
High standards
Not one to rest on her glided laurels, Susie is launching a toddler range at the end of the end of the year followed by an 18 months plus range in 2009.
“All the babies who were weaned on Plum baby food are growing up now. A lot of shelf-stable toddler foods are terrible, and I feel a responsibility to those children. Their parents are expecting very high standards from us.”
And when it comes to imposing standards, no one is firmer than Susie.
“When it comes to making food for babies' delicate tummies the compliance is a massive huge responsibility, not only for Plum but for anyone associated with us along the line. When I set up Plum, I said this needs to be run like a military operation. There’s no room for error here because I’m competing against brands who’ve been doing it for years.”
Susie's advice
For aspiring entrepreneurs, Susie has the following advice: “I visualised Plum on the shelf before I had done all the inbetweeny bits.
“I knew there would be hurdles but you have to hold onto your vision. So many people will say it can’t be done, but have courage in your convictions.
"Now people have stopped saying it can’t be done to me, and instead say: ‘Good Lord, Susie, you’ve done it’."
For more information on Plum baby, visit www.plum-baby.co.uk/
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Last Modified: 17/06/2008