Dragon’s Den star Texas Joe delivers a beefy launch

After pitching his beef jerky company in a rhinestone suit and Stetson to the Dragons’ Den in August, Joe Walters has just launched Texas Joe’s. Bdaily takes him behind the business.

What has been the biggest challenge in the last 12 months?

The biggest challenge for my company was taking it from a one man operation to an efficient machine ready to become a player in the market. This took a lot of hard work and some serious pitching to convince people that this was not just a pipe dream but a strong business model. Luckily, I had a few people come on board early and now we have assembled a world class team that share the common goal of making Texas Joe’s a global brand.

What is your biggest achievement over the past 12 months?

Our biggest achievement has been a complete rebranding and expansion of scope of the company. We took ourselves from a rather narrowly branded company, Original Jerky, to an all encompassing one, Texas Joe’s. We designed the branding to work across all platforms and to always have potential for expansion and extension. Securing a deal with nationwide deal with Sainsbury’s was also a huge win for us, and Texas Joe’s jerky will be available to buy there from the end of this month.

What is your biggest focus for the coming year? This year is all about successfully scaling the business. We will be rolling out our first product into the high street retailers. We also have a number of new products in development that will be launching in the coming year. In addition to the retail side of things we will also be opening our first Texas Joe’s BBQ restaurant in London.

If you had to choose one top piece of advice for someone just starting out in business, or is currently operating within your industry sector, what would it be?

My advice for someone just starting in business is to never let your dreams be limited by reality. You may be slogging away making little headroom for months or even years, but if your vision for the future is clear you have an asset that no one can put a price on. Trust in the strength of your own idea.

Can you share with us your view of the current landscape of business, in your region or generally, and where your organisation sits within it?

I think that the current business climate is still very tenative with people unsure of the future of the economy. We are optimists. We believe there is always room in the market for a great product. If you ensure that you what you make is better than the rest then you will be a success.