Relish Marketing

Relish Marketing Joined-up sales and marketing that propels food and drink businesses to the next level.

08/07/2026

Helen Johnston told me the best piece of advice she's ever received.

“Don’t take advice from anyone else... Listen to yourself.”

It was delivered by a founder at The Bread & Jam Festival. To a room full of founders, who’d presumably paid to be there and get some advice…

Dealing with that paradox is important. When you’re new to an industry, you need to hear from experts. You need to listen, but you need to absorb it into your point of view and your plan. Nobody else can do the founder’s job for you.

Helen knows this better than most. She spent two years developing her idea for Sucseed.Life - a range of seed and botanical herb super blends - before she was confident enough to launch. The first two years were, in her words, a pretty lonely road. It paid off. She’s now in Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason, as well as Panzer's and other independent delis and farmshops.

In this episode of How to Grow a Food Business, you’ll also find out:

🌱 Why 96% of us need the nutrient seeds are packed with

🛒 How SUCSEED built stockists using the neighbourhood model

🏪 Why in-store sampling is non-negotiable

👍 The pivotal step that gave her confidence to take the plunge

👀 The vision for SUCSEED that genuinely stopped me in my tracks

All of this and more in the latest Relish podcast:
https://podcast.relish-marketing.co.uk/e/helen-johnston-sucseed-functional-food/

Most of the food start-ups I work with love making their product – but a lot fewer are comfortable selling it!It’s not t...
01/05/2026

Most of the food start-ups I work with love making their product – but a lot fewer are comfortable selling it!

It’s not that they don’t believe in their product – perhaps it’s more of a confidence issue or feeling they lack the necessary skills.

Being passionate is key when you are selling your product, but there is so much more you need too. You have to:

• think from the buyer’s perspective
• remove barriers to purchase before they arise
• be persistent and follow up
• treat it as a process and not a one-off pitch

Turning enquiries into listings needs The Seller Hat to be firmly in place.

From my years of experience, however, The Seller Hat is the one most business owners find hardest to wear. Which probably means it’s the one that you need to think about the most!

From the outside, it's easy to think that running a food or drink business is all about the food (or drink).At the start...
23/04/2026

From the outside, it's easy to think that running a food or drink business is all about the food (or drink).

At the start, it mostly is. But somewhere between the first farmers' market and the first retail listing, the job has changed. You're a salesperson, strategist, operations manager - sometimes all in the same day.

The founders who build sustainable businesses are often the ones who've figured out which hat to wear at any given moment.

I think there are seven distinct hats food (and drink) founders need to wear.

Founder Hat #1: The Maker

This is where almost every food business begins. You have a product you believe in, you know how to make it, and the quality shows. The Maker hat is essential - without it, nothing else holds together.

But it can become a trap. When production fills every available hour, everything else gets crowded out. The follow-up call that doesn't happen. The retail opportunity that goes cold. The kitchen is your comfort zone. But growth happens when you step outside it.

Which hat do you wear most naturally?
https://www.relish-marketing.co.uk/seven-hats-of-food-business-founders/

04/02/2026

Vegans don't just eat. They share.

Plantside founder Anna Gorman says it's one of the hardest things to get across to non-vegan chefs. They see the cost of adding a product, but they don't see the free marketing that comes with it.

When a restaurant finally offers something they've been missing - like proper vegan Yorkshires - they post about it. They tag the venue. They tell their friends. They come back.

It's a reminder that sometimes the best marketing is earned by giving people exactly what they've been waiting for.

🎧 Listen to the full conversation now:
https://podcast.relish-marketing.co.uk/e/anna-gorman-plantside-vegan-yorkshire-puddings/

What happens when you make a product that your target consumers love and simply have to have?Anna Gorman of Plantside ne...
28/01/2026

What happens when you make a product that your target consumers love and simply have to have?

Anna Gorman of Plantside never set out to start a food manufacturing business. After 20 years in hospitality, she opened a vegan café - two weeks before the first lockdown! However, it led to creating a product that vegans love and many thought was impossible to get right.

With time on her hands, she decided to crack something notoriously difficult: vegan Yorkshire puddings. Seven weeks of trial and error later, she opened the oven to find they'd finally worked.

👉 Listen to interview now: https://podcast.relish-marketing.co.uk/e/anna-gorman-plantside-vegan-yorkshire-puddings/

What started as a menu item for her 30-seat café became a nationally distributed product when customers began asking to take them home, then emailing from around the country to request postal deliveries.

In this episode, Anna shares how she built the business with no business plan, no formal consumer testing, and no marketing - just experience, passion and a product people genuinely craved.

Tune in to hear:

🪴 Why Anna chose "plant-based" over "vegan" on the packaging

🪴 How she established a collab with THIS™ sausages

🪴 The challenge of convincing non-vegan chefs to use a product vegan customers are desperate for

🪴 Why she nearly quit - and the stranger whose kindness kept her going

🪴 The ethical tension between supermarket opportunities and supporting the independents who backed her first

Listen to How to Grow a Food Business now:
👉 https://podcast.relish-marketing.co.uk/e/anna-gorman-plantside-vegan-yorkshire-puddings/

What’s the most cost-effective way to get your products noticed this year?It’s probably entering awards. Getting shortli...
22/01/2026

What’s the most cost-effective way to get your products noticed this year?

It’s probably entering awards.

Getting shortlisted or winning will get the attention of consumers, it's something to talk to buyers and stockists about, the organisers will be working hard to get coverage that you can benefit from, and it'll give your whole team a boost.

Not only that, but the entry process can bring some real focus to what you’re doing, and you often get useful feedback from experienced judges.

But which awards should you enter? I’ve rounded up 14 key awards, along with all the important dates, links and entry costs in this handy doc. Download it now.

👉 https://www.relish-marketing.co.uk/download-food-and-drink-awards-2026/

What's the most expensive question in food and drink?"Is there a demand for my product idea?"Expensive if you don't ask ...
08/01/2026

What's the most expensive question in food and drink?

"Is there a demand for my product idea?"

Expensive if you don't ask it early on. And, if you don't know, you'll soon figure it out - but only after it's cost you money. Pitching, product development, packaging, design, branding, events and so on.

Market viability isn't a box-ticking exercise before you get to the exciting stuff. It is the exciting stuff. It's where you discover whether you're making something people will actually buy - and then buy again - or just something you've convinced yourself is a good idea.

Five questions to set you on the right path:

➡️ Where do you fit in the category - and, more importantly, where do you not?

➡️ Who (or what) is really competing for your customer's spend?

➡️ Does your price make sense against what they're currently buying?

➡️ Do the commercials and costs stack up?

➡️ Why would a buyer give you shelf space they've already filled?

Hard questions. But not as tough as finding out the hard way.

Watch the webinar about establishing commercial viability:
👉 https://www.relish-marketing.co.uk/webinar-commercially-viable-food-product-idea/

Is this what your 2026 to-do list looks like? Assuming you've done everything you can to influence Christmas 2025, it's ...
09/12/2025

Is this what your 2026 to-do list looks like?

Assuming you've done everything you can to influence Christmas 2025, it's time to plan. If you're a founder staring at a list of everything you *could* be working on next year, you're not alone.

Product innovation. Range extension. Brand refresh. Bigger retailers. Higher rate of sale. Trade shows. Brand collabs. Pricing. Margins. Manufacturing. Building your tribe. The list goes on.

The question isn't what needs doing. The question is what's going to have the biggest impact on your business next year.

Sometimes the most valuable thing you can do is talk to someone who's seen how this plays out for food and drink businesses before, and map out a plan that actually makes sense.

That's what I do. If you want help getting your 2026 priorities straight, book a discovery call now.

👉 https://www.relish-marketing.co.uk/contact/

So excited to see my client Drinks Kitchen featured at the opening of Bristol’s new sober bar, Arc Events. The bar scene...
31/10/2025

So excited to see my client Drinks Kitchen featured at the opening of Bristol’s new sober bar, Arc Events.

The bar scene is changing, and Arc is an entirely alcohol-free bar. No token mocktails. No apologetic juices. No having to drink Diet Coke all night. It’s a venue dedicated to sophisticated, zero-alcohol socialising. Award-winning brands like Drinks Kitchen offer drinkers high-quality, complex flavours.

Sober isn’t a niche experiment. It’s a growing trend. The data tells the story:

→ Low and no-alcohol beer sales surged 32% YOY in Q1 2025

→ 47% of pub-goers now “zebra-stripe” - alternating between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks

→ 27% plan to drink MORE soft drinks when they go out

People are choosing differently, driven by health consciousness, economics and a sizeable cultural shift: being sober-curious isn't boring. It’s intentional.

Drinks Kitchen and venues like Arc in Bristol, Sobar in Nottingham and Hinterland - Manchester Alcohol-free Bar are showing what’s possible when you craft for this audience. Will other brands be savvy enough to embrace it too?

See Drinks Kitchen featured on BBC Bristol:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2355664724890216

Read more about the rise of sober:
https://www.relish-marketing.co.uk/going-out-not-drinking-the-rise-of-sober-bars/

Cheers! (Whatever you’re drinking.)

How are you going to maximise your festive sales in retail this Christmas? The best thing you can do is put yourself in ...
10/10/2025

How are you going to maximise your festive sales in retail this Christmas?

The best thing you can do is put yourself in your retailers' shoes. The more you can help them, the more they'll help you. What will they be thinking? How can you help them choose your product? How can you incentivise them?

7 Ways to Help Retailers Sell More of Your Product This Christmas:
👉 https://www.relish-marketing.co.uk/how-to-help-retailers-sell-more-of-your-product-this-christmas/

And if you want to brainstorm some ideas - just drop me a DM.

Address

5 Hawkhills
Leeds
LS74NX

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Relish Marketing posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category