RSS feedsThe Pure Package quite literally began life in Jennifer Irvine’s kitchen after she spotted a gap in the market for a daily gourmet food delivery service.
The idea is simple after a detailed telephone consultation, a team of chefs, nutritionists and dietary therapists design a tailored food programme for each client.
This takes into account their aims and requirements weight loss, healthier eating, training support, allergy management, pre- or post-baby diet, a bit of an energy boost or just the desire for someone else to do the cooking.
Each day’s food, consisting of three balanced meals and two snacks, is delivered to customers in a temperature-controlled bag by six o’clock in the morning without clients being disturbed. There’s no need to plan meals, weigh ingredients, count calories, shop or cook. Such a system fits in perfectly with today’s busy, hard-working professionals, and is equally appealing to celebrities Irvine counts a number of movie stars and even a Michelin-starred chef among The Pure Package’s fans.
‘We launched on 1 March 2004, on the second of March we had a full-page article about us in the Evening Standard, on the third the phones went crazy,’ Irvine recalls.
She realised it would not be possible to run the business from her kitchen, so persuaded her clients to pay in advance for 90 days’ worth of meals using the cash to move into larger premises. Now, four years later, she has a team of 20, including a dozen in the kitchen, based in New Covent Garden, London. The location is ideal as the suppliers are right on the doorstep.
‘We buy the ingredients just in time, get the best prices and it is very fresh,’ Irvine explains.
In the first year of operation, The Pure Package had a turnover of £200,000. Now it is £1m and is expected to be grow this year. Much of the growth has come from good client retention and personal recommendations.
Originally the service was only available within the M25, but that has spread to include surrounding counties. Further afield and the delivery costs, to say nothing of the carbon footprint, would make the service very expensive.
Currently, the service costs from £24 a day for a minimum of ten days, including delivery.
However, The Pure Package is not immune to the current economic turmoil. With food and fuel costs rising, Irvine has been forced to increase prices, but has given clients an opportunity to stock up on credits at the old price some clients are paid up until beyond July 2009.
Now Irvine is looking at how to replicate the service across the UK and internationally, though she acknowledges that London still retains great potential for further growth. Other possibilities include branching out into cookery books and developing the brand into one that is synonymous with healthy lifestyle products.
Other issues include developing a sensible exit strategy. Although she has no plans to leave the business in the immediate future, she knows that every entrepreneur should have a strategy in place. ‘I’m not planning an exit at the moment, but how should I best structure the business so this is an option in the future?’ Irvine asks.
Currently, there are no outside investors, no loans or other financial facilities. She is looking at her business banking options as she feels she cannot get a good enough level of service under her current free banking arrangements. ‘I need to know that if there is a cashflow problem, or if I suspect there have been fraudulent transactions in my account, that there will be someone I can talk to,’ she says.
And although the company is below the turnover threshold for a statutory audit, Irvine is considering whether it would be worth employing the services of a large accountancy firm; will it increase the value of her business? Switching to a large firm could add further reassurance that the business is in as good a shape as her health-conscious customers.
The main challenges:
- how to replicate the service throughout the UK and internationally
- protecting against rising fuel and food costs
- extending her banking arrangements
- developing a workable exit strategy
Click here to read what our experts from HSBC think Jennifer Irvine should do to move on
