Spilling the Beans (and the Pitch Secrets): The Against Ordinary Bread & Jam Round-Up

Spilling the Beans (and the Pitch Secrets): The Against Ordinary Bread & Jam Round-Up

Alright, let’s be real. If you put some of the sharpest, most unapologetic minds in FMCG, food tech, and retail into one room, you’re going to walk away with more than just a free tote bag. You’re going to get the unvarnished, behind-the-scenes truth about what it actually takes to survive and scale in this industry.

Before we dive into the heavy-hitting insights, we have to shout out the absolute powerhouse squad we bumped into, shared a drink with, and talked shop alongside:

  • Joe Hill – One Planet Pizza
  • Thea Brooke – Business Growth Expert
  • Louisa – Wildly Tasty
  • Megan – Yumm Singa
  • Katie – Suan
  • Shadia – Cuzena
  • Monique – Matcha yaad
  • Eugene – Revibed drinks
  • Kyle – kulcher
  • Bonnie Chung – endgame
  • Zoe Fox – coconut collab / getting to grow
  • Amelia – bold bean co
  • Mark Millard – WheyBetter
  • Xuenyi – EatLa

The energy was electric, but two talks entirely stole the show. Here are our unfiltered notes, combined with a little extra Against Ordinary thought leadership so you can actually implement this stuff on Monday morning.

Talk 1: Founders Fireside Chats – Crafting a Pitch that Delivers & Wins Over Buyers

Featuring: Elin Roberts (Better Nature), Kathryn Bracken (Doughlicious), and Rosie Long (Blue Turaco Coffee).

This session was a masterclass in leaving your ego at the door. The overarching message? Everyone has a story about a “missing product” or a recipe they perfected in their kitchen. To stand out, you need to ruthlessly communicate your WHY.

But here is the real secret sauce: Ask questions first. Before you launch into your pitch, figure out what the buyer’s current headache is, and be ready to pivot your narrative so your product becomes the paracetamol.

Elin from Better Nature nailed the concept of humility. Being open about your operational challenges and how you’re overcoming them doesn’t make you look weak; it makes you look credible. And when (not if) you get ghosted by a buyer? Keep the touchpoints light. Stop sending “Just bubbling this up!” emails. Instead, send them genuinely good news about your business updates that prove listing you will make them look famous.

Other quick-fire gold from the panel:

  • Sales Agencies: Brilliant, but only if you have the time to manage them, the right sample inventory, and an iron-clad pricing structure.
  • Trade Shows: Are they worth it? Yes, for mental availability. If you’re hitting the Food & Drink Expo in Birmingham, have a militant game plan. If you’re at Taste of London, the buyers are relaxed, but your follow-up game needs to be aggressive.
  • Data Discipline: Fliss from Wild Thingz dropped a truth bomb: don’t buy data until you’re actually ready to use it. Use platforms like Elm for rate of sale (ROS).
  • Predicting ROS: Shoot high. If you don’t know what your ROS should be, ask around first. Be ambitious, but clearly map out the how.
  • Rule zero: Just be a nice person. Buyers move around constantly; the junior category assistant you brush off today will be the senior buyer you’re begging for a meeting with tomorrow.

The Extra Research

Elin Roberts didn’t just preach this; she lived it. When Better Nature successfully pitched Tesco, they didn’t just talk about tempeh. They used hard data to show the buyer that while the meat-free space was completely oversaturated, it lacked genuinely healthy, whole-food options. They proved they were solving a specific retail problem.

Similarly, Fliss Newland’s approach to data at Wild Thingz is razor-sharp. Before pushing into the sweet aisle, they commissioned a YouGov study revealing that 64% of parents are “reluctants” who actively hesitate to buy sweets due to sugar and additives. They didn’t guess their market fit; they brought receipts.

Against Ordinary Thought Leadership: The Scaleup Playbook

  • The “Pre-Pitch” Interrogation: Throw out your rigid slide deck. Your first three minutes in a buyer meeting should be diagnosing their category gaps. Position your pitch as a bespoke solution to their KPI problems, not just a tour of your brand.
  • The Ghost-Busting Drip Campaign: Build a “Good News Only” CRM pipeline for buyers who have gone quiet. Did you just hit a massive DTC milestone? Get a killer PR feature? Drop them a two-line email with the link. Induce FOMO, not fatigue.
  • Wait on the Data Spend: If you aren’t in enough doors to mathematically benefit from deep EPOS data, keep your cash. Use your direct-to-consumer metrics to build your initial story, and invest in heavy retail data only when you need to defend or expand shelf space.

Talk 2: How We Made Our Mission Our Superpower

Featuring: Amelia from The Bold Bean Co.

If you ever needed proof that brand building beats product pushing, this was it. Amelia started in food sustainability, working alongside chefs and farmers where she realized beans and pulses were the ultimate cheat code for global food resilience.

She was obsessed with the mission long before she had a physical product to sell. Because of this, the marketing happened before the launch. She built an audience by sharing recipes, sustainability stories, and a genuine love for beans before Bold Bean Co even existed. The community was baked in from day one, providing feedback at every single stage.

Even today, their email list isn’t a discount-code farm. People sign up for the pure value they add through recipes and culinary inspiration.

The wildest move? They launched a book just one year into trading, before most of the country even knew who they were. But it was a masterstroke. The book unlocked massive PR credibility. As Amelia noted: People don’t want a founder; they want a person on a mission. The book allowed her to go on morning TV to preach the mission, which naturally sold the product without ever looking like an infomercial.

That mission filters every decision they make. It’s why they sell merch that perfectly holds jars of beans. It’s why their baked beans are formulated and targeted at the Sunday sourdough brunch foodie, not the hungover student. It even dictates how they steer the ship with their investors.

The Extra Research

The data backs up Amelia’s instinct perfectly. According to a joint study by McKinsey and NielsenIQ, products making ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) claims average 28% cumulative growth over five years, compared to 20% for products making no such claims. Furthermore, by tapping into the cookbook market, a historically robust publishing sector Bold Bean Co essentially created a Trojan Horse for brand awareness, allowing them to bypass traditional, expensive FMCG ad spend and enter consumer kitchens as an authority first, and a commodity second.

 Against Ordinary Thought Leadership: The Scaleup Playbook

  • Build the Cult Before the Church: Stop waiting until your packaging is printed to start talking to your audience. Start documenting the problem you are trying to solve online today. By the time you launch, you shouldn’t be hunting for customers you should be fulfilling orders for a community that already trusts you.
  • The Trojan Horse PR Strategy: Journalists and producers are allergic to product pitches, but they love a crusade. Wrap your brand in a tangible, value-adding asset (like a recipe book, a controversial industry report, or an educational campaign). Pitch your expertise, and let your product ride the slipstream.
  • The Mission Filter: Write your core mission on the wall and ruthlessly run every potential SKU, marketing channel, and retail partnership through it. If launching a cheaper, lower-quality variant dilutes your core mission, kill the idea. True superpower lies in what you have the guts to say no to