Partner Article

Bdaily meets Green & Blacks founder, Jo Fairley

Former journalist Jo Fairley found sweet success with her upmarket chocolate brand Green & Blacks in the early 90s and has established the firm as a leading light in organic food. Bdaily caught up with her following a talk at the inaugural Business Exchange event at Teesside University’s Darlington campus, to hear the story and gather some of her entrepreneurial advice.

“I found two squares of a prototype bar of dark chocolate on my husband’s desk. He was considering what he might do with it - and was about to suggest a friend of ours distributed it in Europe,” said Jo.

Husband Craig Sams had been in the organic foods business since 1967 when he had set up Whole Earth foods with his brother Gregory.

“Obviously I ate the squares, and that was the lightbulb moment. I thought ‘oh my god’ this is the best chocolate I’ve ever eaten. I said to Craig that he had to do something with this. But, at the time his products had no added sugar, and this had sugar. Eventually he said I should do something with it if I was so keen on it,” she added.

A deal was struck there and then as Jo agreed her role would be to do the marketing and branding while her husband handled the distribution side of the business. Using £20,000 she had saved from the sale of her flat, Jo set about creating Green & Blacks.

It was 1991 and the organic food market was still very much in its infancy.

Jo continued: “At that point in time it felt like more of a risk not to do it. It would have always eaten me up had I not given it a go.”

The former Times columnist says she has never needed a focus group: “Being a journalist you are really close to the reader, who is a customer, and you know what’s interesting to the consumer.

“I was able to put myself in the shoes of the consumer and that’s really where the success of Green & Blacks comes from. I never had to think too hard about what our customers might want next. And it helped that I knew about the types of news stories that would get us attention.”

In 2000 Jo and Craig sold the business to a private equity company so as to afford the hiring of a top flight team to lead growth. Some 13 years later and Green & Blacks has become a household name that has spawned numerous imitators.

“Everybody needs to be looking over their shoulders in business. If there’s nobody coming up behind you then it can lead to complacency and laziness. You don’t want to have it all your own way,” added Jo.

“It was incredibly helpful that we’re the first. There’s businesses starting all of the time that are the first of their kind and you think to yourself ‘how the hell hasn’t anybody thought of that before.’

“I think the first step in developing your idea is to ask yourself what is missing in terms of a service or product that you really wish existed. The chances are, if you feel that way, other people will do.”

The first mover advantage has undoubtedly afforded Green & Blacks a benchmark market presence, and the brand continues to lead its niche.

Jo continues: “Copycats never do as well as the original ‘category maker.’ The lesson here is to make your own category - and people are doing that everyday.

“There’s a fantastic business that I’ve just written about called Rubies in the Rubble. It takes fruit and veg that has been rejected by stores and makes them into chutneys and jams. Nobody has done that before. I would really encourage people to do something original.”

In 2005, Green & Blacks received an industry stamp of approval as Cadbury’s acquired the business for £20m. Now under the umbrella of Kraft, the homely brand has become part of the one of the world’s largest food conglomerates. Jo says it was never part of the plan for the businesses to be acquired by a huge multinational, and admits she wasn’t even sure what an exit strategy was.

She explains how it has worked: “The experience has been fine. They’ve left us alone and largely adhered to the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mantra. We know that we influenced Cadbury from within to go fairtrade.

“At the dinner for the outgoing CEO of Cadbury’s, Tod Stitzer, he turned to our table and said he’d like to thank Jo Fairley and Craig Sams for showing us the way with fairtrade. That was his acknowledgement that we’d shown them fairtrade could be good for business.

“As a result of that, other brands such as Kit Kat and Maltesers, have gone fairtrade and it’s become a bit of an imperative in the food market. It goes to show that it is possible to influence big business.”

Jo’s top tip for fledgling businesses is to hold off on the advertising until the brand is established. She says: “Invest in your product and let that do the talking. With a food business for example, the best way to turn people onto your product is to let them taste it.

“As a small business you’ve got an advantage as you don’t have to get actions signed off by lots of people. You can take executive decisions and get your product on the market very quickly.

“Our fastest Green & Blacks product was 12 weeks from conception to being on the shelf. You could never achieve that in a big company.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .