‘We sold the dining room table to make space for a blast freezer’

Neeta Kotecha, 57, and her son, Vikesh, 29, founded The Honestly Good Smoothie Company, delivering smoothie kits around the UK. They live together in Luton, Bedfordshire.

THE IDEA

As 2015 drew to a close, my son Vikesh was suffering from digestive issues, and I knew I could help. Every morning, I’d blend him an organic smoothie, with

ginger and turmeric. I grew up watching my mum add spices to everything and knew they had powerful antioxidants. Within months, this ritual greatly improved his digestion and energy.

They say necessity is the mother of invention and it was only when I went on holiday to Lake Garda that Vikesh had an idea for a business. He didn’t fancy washing, peeling and chopping ingredients every morning, but he knew bottled smoothies were mostly made of apple juice. By the time I got home,

Vikesh was ready to hand in his notice at his recruitment job to launch The Honestly Good Smoothie Company, making organic, blend-yourown smoothie kits for home delivery.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

To raise capital, I continued to work part-time in a pharmacy and Vikesh took on another three jobs in 2016, while we spent every free moment experimenting with ingredients. We sold the dining room table to make space for a blast freezer, to lock in nutrients. We also bought four other freezers for storage. My husband and I put all our savings and my pension into the business. We took on a Head of Product Development, Blake Bowden, and the website went live at the end of 2017.

BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT

We haven’t had to do much marketing as so many of our customers refer a friend, so our growth is very organic. It’s amazing making something people love.

You won’t know if you’ve had a good idea unless you try, and the road to success is long, but if you feel passionate, give it

everything.

STEEPEST LEARNING CURVE

We underestimated how complicated it would be to create a 230g pouch of

out how to transport frozen ingredients.

work in summer, so we now use dry ice.

WHERE WE ARE NOW

The sentiment of our brand is clean, wholesome and honest. There are no nasties in our pouches and no nasties in our brand. Using organic ingredients means there are no pesticides or herbicides. The packaging is recycled and recyclable, and our peels and skins are given to local allotments for compost.

We’ve moved production to a facility in London, so the house is getting back to normal. Our smoothies now have themes, like The Whirling Dervish and Mint Choc Chip, with sweet potato, spinach, mint, cashews and cacao nibs.

We’ve launched a pantry, so customers can buy ingredients like baobab and maca powder, and we’re launching protein, dessert and mother-and-baby ranges. Customers can also scan a QR code to tell us if they like a smoothie,

taste preferences. It’s all very futuristic but it means we can give every customer a tailor-made experience.