Page 15 - Charlie Bigham CS

In 2010 Bigham created a new position of chief executive taking on the
title of chairman and creative director for himself later on. His rationale
for this was straightforward:

"It has enabled me to focus on the bits of the

business I'm really interested in - product
development, and the big strategic picture - working
out plans for the next three to five years," he said.

"The bit in the middle [the day-to-day financial

decisions etc.] I'm easily bored by, and is best done
by someone else."

Bigham will have to wrestle with emerging issues such as working
significantly below capacity, increasing competition (especially on

price) and balancing waste and innovation.

In the past Bigham had faced other challenges not the least of which
was the process of expansion.

“Investing in building and equipment when it was time
for us to expand – when you reach that crunch point,

you know you're having a moment and you decide to
stretch to the limit and buy somewhere bigger – that
was hard. Each time we expanded it took 18 months,

and I've done it three times so far. Cashflow and
planning were also difficult.”

The one thing Bigham has stuck to since the beginning was that he
could not compromise on quality and certainly not to simply achieve

size.

The recession however, did impact on Bighams in that the business
slimmed down, becoming more efficient adding 20% growth on
average year–on-year.

However, in November 2011, Bigham rolled out six of his brand meals

for two: