Wednesday, April 25, 2012
From Bathtub 2 Boardroom - Bread and Butter - Wednesday 25th April @ The Adam Street Club
Nick Jenkins worked as a commodity-trader in Russia for 8 years. When a client stole $10m of sugar and then pinned a death threat to his door when Nick took legal action, he decided enough was enough. His exit in 1998 was timely, three months before the Russian economy collapsed.
Nick then took an MBA at Cranfield Business School while he 'came up with something clever'. That 'something' was allowing customers to customise greetings cards online. Moonpig.com, the online, personalized greeting card retailer was born.
In 1999, Jenkins bought some factory space in the Lotts road, Chelsea, at £25 a square foot and put £160,000 of his own money into the business. At first, there was 'no marketing budget' (hard to believe when that jingle is so familiar). So for six years, the business ran on word of mouth.
Nick soldiered through the dot.com bubble bursting and the economy working against him for another 4 years before Moonpig.com started turning profit. Now eleven years since it's launch, Moonpig.com has a turnover of £40m and was sold in July 2011 to Photobox for a cool, breezy £120m. We wonder how many congratulation cards Nick got for that.
Now days, he gives back to young entrepreneurs, giving talks like this and mentoring for the Prince's Trust.
Tim Roupell lost his job as a broker 23 years ago and wondered what to do next. After rounds of demoralising interviews, he began to realise that he had never really found that fifth gear and perhaps the city wasn't the place for him. As a result, Tim founded sandwich company Daily Bread in his kitchen, using his mother's famous chutney. He got a friend on board and one morning walked back into his old offices with a platter of home-made sandwiches.
The business grew and grew, and Daily Bread's clients expanded from city firms in London, to bigger outfits across the South of England. He expanded his capacity ingeniously and determinedly, always putting a mezzanine into rented units to double the working space.
Tim's story is detailed in his great book Bread and Butter, after which this talk is named. Tim remained the sole-owner of the business, despite tempting opportunities to sell when the going got tough. For a period he commuted from France, where his family had moved to get a better education for the children.
After 23 years of sweat and blood, Tim had build a committed team and established Daily Bread as the foremost quality wholesaler in Southern England with a turnover of £14m. The icing on the cake was a royal warrant to supply Buckingham Palace.
Tim, like Nick, gives back through his Fellowship at the Prince's Trust; and can occasionally be found on the ski-slopes.
Reader Comments (1)
The best ever method for hacking the big fish casino is here method to get free big fish casino chip at free of any type of payment.