Pippa gets to nutty gritty of launching her business
HEALTHY protein-filled snacks are the holy grail of fitness fans.
Peanut butter fan Pippa Murray got fed-up with sugar-loaded and palm-oil filled varieties on sale in supermarkets when she was training for a marathon.
So the 28-year-old decided to create her own range which has been a hit with clean eating and fitness fans.
The former producer for the Science Museum didn’t have a background in food and had never developed a product before.
But she didn’t let that hold her back.
Pippa said: “I’m addicted to peanut butter.
“I absolutely love the stuff and that was one of the reasons I wanted to launch the brand, because this is a product I love and felt I could sell really well.”
She spent 18 months burning through blenders on a quest to make the perfect spread.
Pippa said: “I remember when we did the first large manufacturing run a month before we launched.
“I was seeing all these products roaring off the production line and while I loved it, there was a little bit of self-doubt creeping in.
“I waas asking myself, ‘What if no one buys it? What if I end up with 20,000 units in a warehouse that I can’t sell?”’
But her hard work paid off and her dream turned into reality.
Pip & Nut nut butters – all natural and palm oil-free – are now stocked in 2500 stores in the UK and Ireland, including Sainsbury’s and Holland & Barrett, with plans to add to the range next year.
Pippa, who won a 2016 NatWest Everywoman Award in celebration of her achievements, also has a book out – Pip & Nut: The Nut Butter Cookbook.
She said: “We get tagged in about 100 Instagram posts a day of people eating our products and it’s great because not many of the pictures are of peanut butter on toast.
“Most of the time, it’s things like a really amazing breakfast bowl, on porridge, on pancakes, smoothies.
“What we’re about as a brand is telling people you can get quite creative with this product.
“Even if it’s in a small way, cooking is a way of having fun and expressing yourself.
“Why not have some fun with the food you’re eating?”