Growing fast… baby food start-up in Asda deal
AN ORGANIC baby food startup that launched in Waitrose in April is now supplying more than 400 Asda stores after its founder said sales exceeded expectations by 400 per cent.
Piccolo was founded two years ago by Italian Catherine Gazzoli, the former chief executive of Slow Food UK, a movement connecting food with a commitment to the community and environment, who has previously worked for the United Nations.
The company is backed by investors including food writer and campaigner Prue Leith, exPizza Express chief executive Mark Angela and Andrew Baker, former chief executive of Prince Charles’s organic food brand Duchy Originals.
Gazzoli said: ‘I spent six years meeting food producers, retailers, people like the managing director of [supermarket] Planet Organic who have a shared ethos around where food comes from, and I felt that there was no baby brand with a strong social DNA.’
The baby food market is dominated by large brands. She said: ‘You’ve got Hain Celestial, which owns Ella’s Kitchen, Cow & Gate, which is owned by Danone, HiPP Organic, which is a German company, and Heinz.’
She added: ‘We just launched into Asda and we just launched 100 per cent vegetable products with Waitrose.’
Other stockists include Planet Organic, Abel & Cole and Whole Foods Market.
‘We’re the first food brand to have the National Childbirth Trust logo on our packaging, because we have a partnership with them doing food education classes for disadvantaged parents,’ she said.
Gazzoli said she wrote her business plan on the kitchen table of Craig Sams, the co-founder of chocolate brand Green & Black’s. She said: ‘Obviously to have someone who’s built Green & Black’s help you with your financials is very helpful.’
She has also had help from her father, who was an auditor of the UN’s supply chain.