BOL Foods on Great Teams, Brave Decisions and How BOL is Managing the Current Crisis #COVIDSPECIAL

LISTEN AND RATE THIS EPISODE ON ITUNES HERE Listen to this episode on Spotify HERE If you’ve listened to the first few episodes of Series 2 of Brand Growth Heroes, you probably know that one of the themes we are exploring is the BRAVE decisions that food & Bev founders sometimes have to make. In this episode we’re talking to Paul Brown, CEO and Founder of BOL Foods, a fast growing chilled food brand that offers plant-based Dinner boxes, Veg Pots, Salad Jars and Soups to busy foodies, and is available in most retailers nationally across the UK. ***Covid 19 addition: Paul and I caught up again last week to record an update in which Paul takes us through how he and the team are getting through the Covid 19 crisis*** Paul launched BOL after 14 years at Innocent drinks, where he gained invaluable experience across roles from Field Sales, to Sales Controller, and finally as General Manager of Innocent Food in 2014. He launched BOL in 2015…and what’s particularly fascinating about this story is the brave decision Paul made – for ethical reasons – that led to BOL becoming the first FMCG food brand IN THE WORLD to drop all meat, fish and dairy from their products …to become 100% plant based. Listen to our interview earlier this month where Paul tells us about the learnings at innocent that have helped to drive growth at BOL, his super- brave decision to pivot his business model to 100% plant-based, and his thoughts and plans around  plastic packaging…. https://www.bolfoods.com https://www.instagram.com/bolfoods/ : @bolfoods If you enjoy this episode, it would be really helpful if you REVIEW it on iTunes & SHARE it on your social media! S2EP4 Timestamps: [00:28] – Introducing, Paul Brown, CEO and Founder of BOL foods; a fast growing chilled food brand offering 100% plant based options to busy foodies.  [01:55] – Introduction to BOL; what do they make and where can we find their products? [02:33] – Why did Paul start the company back in 2015? [03:23] – BOL is on a mission to inspire the world to eat more plants. Why is that and how has BOL’s mission evolved since its inception? [04:19] – BOL has big ambitions and fast growth. How many people are there in the offices at BOL? [05:04] – Paul has managing experience he brings with him after 14 years at Innocent. What else has he learned that he has been able to use while setting up BOL and driving growth? [07:30] – The food industry is really hard, particularly the chilled foods sector. What are the things that stick out to Paul as particularly difficult to manage as a chilled supplier to a grocery retailer, that he was able to overcome more quickly because of his experience at Innocent? [10:42] – What kind of roles are absolutely critical to have on the team to make a company like BOL successful? The business is split into five key functions; finance team, operations team, commercial teams, brand marketing team, and people team. [13:58] – At what point in BOL’s trajectory did they decide to add more people? How do you make the leap from 5 to 20 people?