Summer 2009
Small Business
Words: Angus Frazer , Pictures: Simon Childs
We climb aboard a Vauxhall Corsa ecoFLEX on the trail of four young food entrepreneurs with the ambition to make it big.
It used to be said that we were a nation of shopkeepers, a nice way of acknowledging an economy underpinned by small business. But that was before the like of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin empire stood upon the world stage, or Sir Alan Sugar broadcast his annual search for an Apprentice.
Self-starters that made it big have never been so visible or so obviously successful. In the world of food, our theme for this issue of V magazine, there are parallels to Messrs Branson and Sugar in both the Green and Black’s premium chocolate brand (bought by Cadbury Schweppes) and the range of drinks created by Innocent (recently acquired in part by Coca-Cola). Both made something big by starting small. But what of the next generation of food entrepreneurs? Who are the names that are going to make it big in the next decade?
To find out, we climb aboard the Vauxhall Corsa five-door ecoFLEX, and embark on a 530-mile trip to meet four foodies with serious ambition.
To visit our first emerging entrepreneur we must head to our capital city. Alas, like many a fortune seeker of old, we find the streets of London are not paved with gold. They are paved with potholes and speed bumps, and in this part of trendy north London they are none too wide either. But the Corsa rides the bumps and handles the narrow alleyways with ease and we are soon parked up in front of the smart Islington premises of Paul A Young, chocolatier par excellence.