Page 7 - Charlie Bigham CS

Bigham started out producing complete food kits but after cooking
demonstrations in stores and talking to his customers he realised that
they wanted something different.

“They were saying they loved the salmon and

watercress sauce, but they didn’t like the fact that we
had put broccoli with it – or they didn’t want to pay a
premium for potatoes or rice because they already

had some at home. So we switched from making
meal kits to doing marinaded meat or fish plus a
sauce, because those are the bits that most people
don’t want to do themselves.”

This revelation combined with his product quality attributes allowed
Bigham to approach the likes of Harvey Nichols, Harrods and
Selfridges right from the start and their stocking of his products gave

his offering credibility both from a public relations (PR) perspective and
in terms of approaching other stockists such as major supermarkets
which might not be as innovative as these independent stockists.

Bigham also recognised that because he was dealing with relatively

small organisations their structures were relatively flat which meant
that he was not dealing with junior buyers who couldn’t make decisions
or were not empowered to do so. Furthermore, it was relatively easy to

see somebody more senior who was more prepared to take a risk and
did not require endless meetings.

Within weeks of making his pitch Bigham was delivering his food with
little or no hassle.

Moreover, these shops knew far more about food than he did, so when

he wanted to expand he spoke to them and they suggested he talk to
Waitrose about taking his food products on.

Bigham’s first year in business was funded out of his £25,000 savings
but by six months into the business revenue had reached £60,000.