Interview: Laurence Olins at FPJ Live

How did the berry campaign help drive sales from £300 million to over £1 billion in 13 years?

Laurence Olins: There’s a whole raft of reasons, of which the campaign is one small area. We provide the background music to what is an amazingly successful story, led by growers, marketeers, and predominantly, supermarkets and the consumer. We changed the focus in 2003-04 when I took over to make it a purely consumer-based campaign. We didn’t spend any money on trade, exhibitions or anything like that. Our message was consistent, and entirely aimed at consumers. That message has developed over the 13 years from health, different occasions, sex, fashion, beauty. But the one big thing has been to change the consumers’ use of our product – the occasions. The occasions for eating berries now is from breakfast to on the move, at your desk and supper. And that’s been a big difference.

What were the other elements of that success?

LO: Dealing direct with supermarkets. Me personally, representing the industry – face-to-face meetings with all our major customers on a once or twice per year basis, so they know exactly what we are doing, what we are spending our money on, the return we are getting on our money, and how they can help and support. And that, without a doubt, has given us shelf space.

Do you think the concept of an overarching industry campaign has much traction?

LO: I’ve been involved in one, the Eat In Colour campaign. No, I think they have no traction. And the main reason is that none of us are terribly altruistic. We are all very selfish and we want to make sure our money goes where it is going to help our businesses. And the problem with a generic campaign is that certain people shoulder the burden and others are freeriders. That does not happen on the category-specific campaign. We represent 98 per cent of the berry industry, and in my meetings with the supermarkets I have a slide which identifies the non-contributors. And I absolutely use the supermarkets to be my recruiters. That’s why we’ve got everybody in and we’ve held them. So I’m not in favour of generic campaigns – I think they’re a waste of money.

What sort of mechanics did you use to achieve that growth?

LO: It’s only PR, so we don’t do any above-the-line advertising. Our spend is around about £250,000 a year, return on investment is round about 1:35, which is remarkably high, and it’s all about the usual mechanics – doing some market research, creating a story, having an ambassador or two to push that forward, creating good photography, recipes, and getting that message out through a whole range of magazines from Elle to Hello! and Red.

What are the challenges facing berries?

LO: Without a doubt new varieties have driven the marketplace and taken us forward. What’s holding us back is plant material. It’s very difficult to get good plant material worldwide, and I don’t believe the propagating industry has kept up with our success. That really could hold us back, particularly on things like raspberries and strawberries. We are also facing increasing numbers of pests and diseases; we are having chemicals taken away from us; the high cost of investment will carry on; and then the big issue is labour. Forty-five per cent of our cost is labour and every year, if we follow the government’s commitment, it will add five per cent to a grower’s wage bill. The obvious way to mitigate that is greater efficiency. We are moving as an industry towards growing on table tops, which is reducing our harvest costs. We would like to see more investment in packhouses, because the race by the multiples to create whole ranges of tiers of different offers and SKUs is an absolute nightmare for a grower or a packer because you’re shortening your runs, increasing your packaging stocks. You’re doing everything that goes against the grain of efficiency in the packhouse.

How big is the ambition for the berry category?

LO: It’s massive. The UK is way ahead of the pack in terms of consumption and interest, but continental Europe, which is five to 10 years behind in terms of category management, is catching up. The northern European countries are really getting hold of berries, especially in the winter months. That’ll be a threat to an extent to this marketplace, as there’s only a certain amount of berries worldwide and some are going to get sucked into alternative markets. Add to that the growth in the Far East and you’ve got a fairly interesting cocktail. If you are a big grower with scale and efficiency you can do very well. We’ve seen the smaller marginal growers lose out. But it’s a risky business – it’s high in capital, high in labour, and the entry point is very high. For a successful industry it breaks all the rules of economics because there are no new entrants, so if you’re in the mix you have seen your business grow.

Have some of the other categories made your job easier?

LO: Undoubtedly. We started out with five per cent of the plate and now we are at 20 per cent. One of every five pounds spent on fruit is a berry, and we are ambitious to grow that. The other categories have been surprisingly quiet. And I’ve got companies in some of these categories. For example apples is a classic one – there is a fairly active English apple campaign that is well funded and well managed during our season, but no-one has taken that and said ‘why don’t we make this a 12-month apple campaign?’ It’s the same players. All you do is raise your levy to cover your total business rather than just your UK business. All of a sudden you are doubling your income, and you can send out your message through a single PR agency and a consistent message.

Are you concerned by how the sugar debate could negatively impact on sales?

LO: Not at all, I think we can only harness it to our advantage. We are going to make the blueberry an alternative ingredient to sweeten pancakes with a three-year campaign. It’s only good news.

What about the possibility of a British exit from the EU?

LO: I’m horrified that we could be sleepwalking into Brexit. It could be very close. As a nation we are importers of fruit. Clearly devaluation of the pound is a given, and it would be an absolute nightmare. I’m very worried.

Is there more potential for British companies to look abroad, both in terms of growing and supply?

LO: Growth for us overseas is not selling UK product, it’s selling our intellectual property. We developed various varieties that are unique to us, and other companies do the same, and the real growth is selling that intellectual property to other growers to grow in their marketplaces, for their market. Hence the reason why we’ve opened up in various different countries, because we’ve got our own breeding company, and that intellectual property can be very valuable, and can only be valuable if you get regrown by growers, and there are many more growers outside this country than there are inside. The world is your oyster in that regard. That is potentially a much greater export to UK companies than the actual product itself.

How has your business had to restructure and evolve to meet these changing times?

LO: When we bought Poupart in 1987, it was losing several million pounds and it had a £3m supermarket business, and £30m wholesale business. How have we changed? We listened to our customers and hopefully done things that they wanted us to do without compromising our own situation. It’s been a symbiotic relationship, good for us, good for our shareholders, and good for our customers.

What’s your view of the discounters?

LO: You have to be in absolute awe of them. Up to this point they have got a very simple system, they work their people very hard, they are very professional to deal with, and they are very well run. It’s going to get harder for them now as they want to push into the south east, and ABC consumers, and that is going to complicate their business somewhat and might make them slightly more expensive to run. But I’m in total awe of them.

Are you planning to retire soon?

LO: I’m 70 this year and I said to myself earlier this year, ‘there’s a time to get out and it’s while you’re in Who’s Who? and not Who’s That?’ I’m pretty much somewhere between the two. We are getting down to months now – I can see the finishing line, and I’ll be gone before people will miss me. I will have done 48 years.

What are your highlights?

LO: Taking over Poupart, which was an absolute basket case, when everyone said ‘what are you doing?’, with me and my team, was a nightmare – the most difficult thing we’ve ever done. You’ve got to look back on that and say that should give anyone inspiration that you can turn anything around. The other highlight was the potato industry. In the mid-90s I was in charge of Hillsdown Holdings’ potato business, which was totally the opposite from Poupart – I was parachuted into a very successful business, and that was a real challenge. Turning businesses around is easy, frankly, but improving a good business is much harder. What I’ve helped to achieve in the berry industry I can also look back on with pride.