Page 6 - Charlie Bigham CS

Undaunted Bigham persevered and eventually the Portobello Business
Centre gave him some funding on top of his own £25,000 savings.
With these funds he set up with one chef his factory at the back of

London's Park Royal business estate where he produced his first three
recipes:

1. a zesty Caribbean lamb dish,
2. a Cajun chicken with mango and red onion

salsa and
3. a salmon with a dill and cream sauce.

In his first week in total, Bigham made just 20 meals.

It had become clear to Bigham that making meals that were sold via
shops was a very good idea as it was a huge market with few barriers
to entry. Furthermore, for Bigham he took the view that:

“Once you decide to do it, you just do it - I don't do

too much navel-gazing and self-doubt.”

Charlie Bigham

Once Bigham had developed his recipes he went and knocked on
doors until he found a few shops in London who agreed to stock them.

"I went round all the posh delis in London, and the big
department stores with food halls. Everyone was

approachable, and said, 'Yeah we'll give you a go'.

What helped Bigham was that at this time most ready (or convenience)
meals were pretty dreadful. Bigham’s meals on the other hand were
one of the first to make quality convenience meals without anything

artificial. His product pricing reflected this which meant that he also had
to deal with accompanying price perceptions. Some people consider
£6 for a meal for two to be too expensive, even if they were prepared

to spend £3 on coffee and a croissant before they went shopping.