James reveals ingredients of successful business launch

Pudding magnate James Averdiek’s told delegates at Wednesday´s Swindon Business Show how he grew his company Gü from nothing to a £30m company.

James, worked at St Ivel in Wootton Bassett and lived in Marlborough before launching the luxury dessert brand, gave an insight into entrepreneurial spirit while sprinkling his presentation with amusing anecdotes.

Charged with launching Utterly Butterly in Belgium – a job that brought him a brush with the law as Belgian authorities objected to the suggestion that the spread actually contained any butter - James had an idea for his own business, inspired by his addiction to chocolate and the Belgium attitude to diet – calorific food served in tiny portions.

The Gü name and look was the idea of his brand designer, Perry Haydn Taylor of Big Fish, who told the entrepreneur that he had found a Swedish company making small luxury deserts. There was no such company, revealed James, but the designer had convinced him that the name and branding worked.

Later, with no money to spend on product testing, James put an empty Gü box on a shelf at a London branch of Waitrose and gave himself 10 minutes to see if any customer ´bought´ the product.

When, after five minutes, a shopper put the box into her basket he was convinced the product was right to launch, and he was able to tell Waitrose and Sainsbury´s that he has ´successfully´ market tested the product range, which started in 2003 with souffles.

James had an innovative approach to marketing. He eschewed television advertising, preferring a £20,000 PR campaign that brought him £1m of newspaper and magazine coverage.

And a deal with Virgin Airlines but his pudding on the flight trays of millions of passengers a year. James told delegates he had discovered that, because of cabin pressure and recycled air, air passengers lose some of their sense of taste. Only two foods – chocolate and whisky – are sensed by the taste buds in the same way as on the ground, making his puds a hit in the skies.

Two years ago James sold his £30 million business when his business partner decided to cash in his stake in the company. There was a touch of sadness in the entrepreneur´s voice when he told his audience “I really miss my business...”.

Gü is now owned by an egg company, and James is looking for his next business venture.