F&D Heroes Issue 1

While all entrepreneurs strive for growth, it appears that for Alan and
Juliet, at least, business becomes a lot more serious and a bit less fun
when you start to achieve the big numbers. Juliet explains: “If we wanted
to do something in the early days, we just did it. We didn’t really have to
think too hard about it. But when you’ve got investors on board and you’re
responsible for paying the salary of 70 members of staff, there’s a lot
more pressure to make the decisions you know will be right and come off.”
“Nowadays, if we made a mistake in production, you’re talking millions of
pounds lost. It’s all proportionate to the size and scale of the business,
but I’m glad we learned what we did when we did, because those things
definitely hurt a lot more as you get bigger.”
‘We haven’t been successful’
“
Young entrepreneurs
wanting your advice
is quite nice, it makes
you realise how much
you know. We’ve built
something from scratch
and created value.
“
Everyone has a different version of what success is. The perception of
entrepreneurs is that success is determined by how much profit they
make, how many countries they sell in, how much they sell a business for,
when we asked the duo what their biggest achievement is, they said it was
looking after family.
“I think ‘successful’ is a weird word. I don’t think we’ve been successful.
We’ve worked bloody hard and have got a great business, but I don’t
really think I’ve been successful,” Jules explains. It’s interesting how
people define success. Many will say it’s the ability to buy a certain car
or a big house. But Alan believes the definition of success is changing
dramatically. He describes those sorts of things as “the icing on the cake.”
“I don’t think entrepreneurs set out to acquire material goods. It’s very nice
to have, but I suppose how we define success is seeing our product in
every retailer in the country. Being able to buy things for my parents was
big for me. We were never bothered about acquiring things for ourselves,
but we like seeing others benefit from what we’ve created.”
Forward thinking
Now, Alan and Jules have entered a phase of their entrepreneurial careers
where they are starting to think about the future and what they can do to
support the next generation. Alan says: “I guess recognition for what we’ve
done and what we’re doing is fantastic. Young entrepreneurs wanting your
advice is quite nice, it makes you realise how much you know. We’ve built
something from scratch and created value.”
Alan’s focus remains on building Grenade even bigger than it already is. At the
time of writing, Grenade is stocked in around 52% of possible stores across
the UK. That may impress most, but Alan takes the view that Grenade isn’t
stocked in 48%. He believes Grenade can keep doing what it’s doing and
double the size of the company just by increasing its distribution to over 90%.
grenade.com
@grenadeofficial
@grenadeofficial
In 2019, Grenade overtook Mars as the second biggest selling chocolate
bar in the UK, which seems incredible given the country’s long-established
love of chocolate. However, Alan believes that Grenade will grow even
quicker, and firmly establish itself as the country’s most popular chocolate
bar, if is stocked in the right place. “We’re winning at the moment from the
back of the store,” Alan says.“If we can be at the front of the store, we can
grow even quicker. In fact, we just need supermarkets to keep us in stock
because a lot are always sold out!”
When they launched the company in 2010, Grenade really did explode
onto the market. But a combination of hard work, love of the brand and
true entrepreneurial nous has seen Grenade’s initial explosion develop into
a chain reaction.
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