smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

Getting your product onto the shelves of a major retailer is no mean feat. SmallBusiness.co.uk speaks to Maria Hellyer, co-founder of The British Curry Company, about how she managed to turn a few jars of curry sauce at a summer fête into Bombay Authentics, a brand that is now sold throughout the UK and exported to 12 countries throughout North America, the Middle East and Europe.

Where did it all begin for you?
I started the business in 2001 with my business partner Patricia Forbes. We were both working mothers with a certain amount of experience in the food industry – Patricia had been a chef and I had worked for a company that sourced ingredients.

We had always joked after a good meal that we should sell the sauces that Patricia made and only decided to go for it after I’d been made redundant and had a long period out of work. We began very small, selling to delis and school fêtes and found that we were getting through our stock very quickly.

Where did you go from there?
At this stage we were still making the sauces ourselves. My husband built us a website and webshop and we started selling online to make the most of the demand, but to tell you the truth it wasn’t the right way to go for our product.

It meant posting jars of chutney and sauce to customers and about 40 per cent of them would arrive damaged. You really need to think carefully about whether mail order is right for your business. I wouldn’t go down that route again.

What about funding?
At the initial stages we funded the business ourselves. If you can self-finance it’s always a better option that taking on debt or negotiating an equity deal. When it’s your own money, you can sleep easier at night. As the business moved forward it was able to finance itself, using sales revenue to fund production and growth.

How did you start to scale up production?
We got in touch with manufacturers and started to screen different companies that would be able to make the product for us. Eventually we found a sauce manufacturer that seemed to have the same appreciation of raw materials and ingredients that we wanted for the brand, which was aimed at the premium end of the market.

Who were you selling to?
Strangely enough, we started by exporting to the US. Having gone to large supermarket chains in the UK and been told to come back when we had an established brand, we decided to get involved in a scheme run by UK Trade & Investment called Passport to Export. It’s a programme designed to help new exporters with the training, planning and support needed to succeed overseas. If you’re eligible, they will even give you a grant.

Did you get a lot of help from UKTI?
Oh yes, we got tonnes of help, they are very eager for UK businesses to make the step into export. Why restrict yourself to the UK anyway? There are 50 million Americans that claim some sort of connection to England, so the market for British food is just huge.

The Anglo-Indian market was one of the fastest-growing food categories in the States at the time, so we realised that even if we could get a small share of it, we’d be doing well. If you think, the largest supermarket in the UK is Tesco, with 2,000 stores nationwide, Safeway has 2,000 stores just on the west coast of the States. Around 40 per cent of our business is export now.

A lot of small firms might be wary of the larger players, how did you find dealing with a much bigger business?
I almost expected to be taken advantage of, but that wasn’t the case at all. Waitrose recognised that we were a brand with integrity and a good story and were very considerate of the fact that we hadn’t dealt with big buyers before.

We met with the buyer from, cooked him lunch and talked it through. They pledged to work with us and push the brand and seemed as excited not to be working with the average, suited and booted business person as we were to be working with them. I mean, we’re astute businesswomen, but we’re also real people. I think in business, there is a lot to be said for being liked.

If you have any questions for Maria Hellyer relating to this article, about export, negotiating a deal with a supermarket chain or growing your brand, please submit them to our editor on adam.wayland@vitessemedia.co.uk and we will pass them on to her.

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