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MDE 41: Transforming chop stick offcuts to pet products, George Bramble of Beco Pets
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When George and his co-founder Toby Massey founded their business the timing wasn't great, it was deep in the recession. So they asked themselves what do people not stop spending money on? The answer they came up with was children and pets, so this was where they decided to focus their business.
Initially self-funded, George kept his job at Bacardi to support them while they set the company up. Although profitable from the end of the first year they knew they needed to scale, so they got a private investor on board who had made his money in clothes retailing and whose advice has been very useful. They used the investment to both launch more products and buy machinery and moulds for their in-house design and manufacture.
The company has now grown to have 2 main areas of business: Beco Pets is present in 43 markets world-wide with 150 lines, and stocked by all the pet retailers in the UK, and their baby part of the business Becobabies is slightly smaller with 30 lines in 20 markets.
What you will learn in this interview:
- What sacrifices he has had to make along the way, especially in the early days
- Why the B2C part of business is crucial, despite being a smaller part of their turnover
- If he could do it again what he would do differently
- Why he was more fearful of having a job than setting up a business
Books
'Losing my Virginity' Richard Branson
'Delivering Happiness' Tony Hsieh
Favourite Quote
''Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen." Winston Churchill
Productivity hacks
Bespoke CRM system, integrated to stock and sales system. Relies on iPhone and has lists. He always takes copious notes in meetings - like a detective!
Links
On Twitter @BecoPets
I really hope enjoyed the interview with George. If you have any thoughts or comments about this episode, please do share them with us on Twitter or Facebook – we’d love to hear from you!
And finally, if you get a chance I would be hugely grateful if you could leave an honest review for The Mission Driven Entrepreneurs Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They're so important to the ranking of the show and I do read every one. If you've left one already, thank you so much!
Thanks again to George for sharing his story with us.
The post MDE 41: Transforming chop stick offcuts to pet products, George Bramble of Beco Pets appeared first on The Career Farm.
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