Bord Bias Brand Forum Cases in Brand Excellence

G Puds: Selling Souffl To The French

G Phenomenon: International Expansion

In early 2010, Britain's biggest egg producer, Noble Foods entered the international

dessert market when it purchased a majority stake in G Puds (G), valuing the company

at around 35 million. Noble Foods saw massive potential for developing the G brand

further on the international stage. Co-founded just seven years previously by entrepreneur

James Averdieck and business partner Mordechai Wosner, G had already rocketed into

prominence in the chilled super-premium desserts category nationwide across the UK. At

the time of purchase G employed 130 personnel including 10 people in Paris together

generating total sales of 25 million. Exports to France and beyond, totaling 17 countries

including Hong Kong and Barbados accounted for almost 40% of volumes.

The award-winning brand and the company behind G had created quite a stir among

chocolate lovers, supermarkets and big brand manufacturers alike, not least for its

superior taste and quality or its iconic branding but also because its success in penetrating

the French market which indicated Averdieck and his team had achieved the impossible:

selling British souffls and chocolate pots to the connoisseurs of patisserie; the French.

G's export success could be attributed to something more than simply mass-producing a

patisserie quality dessert, however. It seemed the company's ability to adapt its strategy of

using supermarket retailers to build a loyal customer base region by region, supported by

excellence in its marketing mix, was the catalyst that helped launch the brand on the

European stage.

In a few short years, G had developed cachet as an excellent brand, consolidated

through an effective marketing strategy but perhaps more importantly because of James

Averdieck's original vision. Almost single-handedly and starting with just 100,000 capital

he had transformed G into a brand worth 40 million in just 7 years. With the acquisition

Averdieck switched roles from Managing Director to International Business Director

leaving industry analysts to ponder what effect such a change might have on the G brand

as it aimed for the 100 million mark.

James Averdieck: Chocoholic

Reflecting on what distinguished G from competitor brands, Averdieck was assertive - it

makes a promise and keeps a promise. His ability to apply that thinking through to every

activity and facet of the business explained its success. Averdieck understood the intrinsic

nature of branding- how every aspect of the business had to support the brand proposition.

In the case of G that proposition was a sophisticated and high-quality but fun and

indulgent brand, a brand with personality, akin to Hagen-Dazs when it launched in the

1980's. And similar to Hagen-Dazs, what made G remarkable was that its competitors

weren't even on the same shelves in the supermarket- there simply was nothing

comparable when it launched in 2003. G had the rare trinity of quality, strong product

development and distinctive packaging.

In hindsight, Averdieck's background suggested he was model material for the

entrepreneur's handbook. With a family history of successful entrepreneurial activities,

James graduated with a degree in economics before he joined a management consultancy

firm, gaining experience of various industries in Europe, the US and the Middle East. He

then spent nine years working for Safeway supermarkets and chilled foods brand St.Ivel

who eventually posted him to Brussels to manage the launch of its flagship margarine

brand into an already declining market. He was 36 years old at the time.

Averdieck's eureka moment came to him one day while sharing a bombe-au-chocolat with

his wife in their neighbourhood patisserie while working in Brussels. Both self-confessed

chocoholics, they had embraced Belgian cuisine with open arms. Relishing the artisan

dessert in hand, the idea occurred to Averdieck that if he could package such fine quality

desserts and sell them through supermarkets back home in the UK he would be onto a

winner. At the time the UK market was dominated by lower quality big brand products, that

in the Averdiecks' opinion, simply could not compare in terms of taste or quality to the

patisserie experience. Purely from observation there was a gap in the marketplace for

premium quality desserts and he was confident no household brand would pursue such a

niche. His interest piqued, Averdieck set about researching and assembling everything he

would need to create a product to fill that gap.

At that early stage his focus was on manifesting the idea into a functioning product that

supermarkets and their customers would buy. Exporting was not even an afterthought and

only came about after a positive experience testing G's puddings in the prestigious

Parisian store, La Grande Epicerie. But that was two years down the line and over the

horizon. First off, Averdieck had to focus on more imminent and practical issues such as

identifying manufacturing partners, designing product packaging and crucially inventing a

name for his dream chocolate pudding. Essentially Averdieck set about building a brand

literally from scratch.

Building a Brand

In Averdieck's experience the key to selling through supermarkets was presenting in

person a 'ready-to-go' product and actively selling it, while the key to retaining shelf space

was rate of sale and having the logistics to support demand in the chain. With this in mind

he set about building his brand and marketing strategy.

First, Averdieck entered into a joint venture with Mordechai Wosner, owner of Rensow

Patisserie. A reliable manufacturing partner was crucial to ensure consistency in the value

chain. Rensow was an experienced contract food manufacturer specialising in airline

catering and proved adept at creating the artisan-style chocolate desserts Averdieck had in

mind. The concept was to develop a fresh product that a customer could take home, heat

in the oven and serve in minutes, passing it off as their own creation if they so wished; a

sort of instant luxury. Furthermore relatively small portions helped minimise the guilt of

indulgence, appealing as an impulse purchase.

Next, Averdieck commissioned Big Fish, a branding agency to help him develop a brand

logo, identity, name and packaging design. Wanting something continental, that conveyed

the sensual pleasure of his desserts and something with personality the agency responded

with the word 'Gu', echoing the French word for taste; 'got'. By adding an umlaut to the

letter 'u' resulting in a smiley face they simultaneously infused the name with sophistication

and the logo with personality; G.

In terms of packaging it was decided to present the souffls in recyclable glass pots

wrapped in sleek brown and black packaging that stood out from the uniform blue and

white plastic characterising the desserts category at the time. With the essentials in place,

Averdieck decided to test customer reactions by sneaking several boxes onto the shelves

of his local supermarket. Enthused by the positive responses he approached the

supermarket buyers, ready to sell his brand.

G's intention was to build awareness and interest through sampling or 'edible advertising'

that would spark positive word-of-mouth supported by buzz among influencers such as

food editors and 'foodie' magazines. This would be supported by on-pack promotions and

effective digital marketing, mainly through their company website. The entire strategy

remained very targeted however, focusing on busy and affluent food loving 30-somethings

as the tier 1 customers. The packaging, pricing and quality would clearly support the

desired premium positioning. Meanwhile Averdieck encouraged customer feedback via the

website to help improve G puddings, for example with respect to new flavours and the

redesign of the glass pots so that they would stack neatly on top of each other. In fact the

website played a central role in building a sense of community among G's customers with

ongoing competitions, photograph galleries, news and updates.

This attention to detail allowed G consolidate the niche it had carved for itself with sales

leaping to 3 million in its first full year of business. It bedded down this success through

constant and regular innovation, introducing dozens of new dessert under the G and

latterly Fr brands, a range of fruit based luxury desserts. While the relationships with any

supermarket chain were never to be taken for granted, Averdieck and his team believed

they had the right blend of enthusiasm for negotiations and the ability to commercialise

new products rapidly which infused relationships with dynamism and freshness- critical in

the world of FMCG brands. Explaining the source of this dynamism Averdieck was

succinct, as a small company we can make decisions quickly. It's important to keep

developing new products and get them into supermarkets, because that's where people

buy desserts.

France and Beyond

With sales around 10 million in its second year of business, management began

evaluating export markets with a preference for France, the UK's second largest market for

British food exports after Ireland, and home of the patisserie. Averdieck figured that

cracking France would be key to opening up other European markets. The vision was to

target international supermarket chains instead of country markets as a means of

expansion.

To do so G decided to first focus on France, where management believed they needed to

build customer bases regionally before launching nationwide. In any case French

supermarkets purchased on a regional basis unlike the more centralised UK model so this

approach seemed to fit best with local market structures. Before that, Averdieck knew he

needed to prove to French retailers G would walk off the refrigerator shelves. Fortunately

that opportunity came knocking on G's door late in 2005 when prestigious Parisian

delicatessen La Grande Epicerie ordered a batch of souffls and chocolate pot desserts to

trial in their store.

Renowned for quality and service, La Grande Epicerie quickly became the company's

best-selling store, selling about 60 packs of puddings per week which was about double

the rate of any of its UK stores at the time. Confident there was traction among French

consumers, Averdieck started fine-tuning G's positioning and identity in the market,

wrapping his souffls in French packaging and pitching them as 'moelleux' instead. He

also removed nearly all on-pack references to its British origins reasoning that French

consumers were quite suspicious of English food and that G could benefit from being

perceived as Germanic. Conversely when pitching to supermarket buyers Averdieck

focused on presenting G as modern London rather than old England, drawing

comparisons with Hagen Dazs by convincing buyers the G brand was trendy.

The first stage in regional growth was expansion across the le-de-France region around

Paris. This process started with negotiations in the summer of 2006 with Carrefour, one of

the world's leading supermarket chains. Averdieck argued so successfully G puddings

would fill a niche at the top end of the chilled desserts category that he had to turn down

an offer for nationwide distribution preferring to stick to his original regional approach.

Launched in the region in November 2006, the company gained shelf space in 150 stores

including the national supermarket chains Auchan and Monoprix. By the following May, G

was selling approximately 4,000 cases per week. In July 2007 it moved across northern

France and by mid-November Averdieck and his team were ready to launch nationwide. To

support that transition G management decided to invest in a direct French sales

presence, setting up a 10-person office in Paris including 5 field sales representatives who

maintained daily contact with category managers in each store.

In 2008 when G won both the Food and Drink Exporter of the Year Award and the New

Exporter of the Year Award at the Food From Britain Awards for its successes in France,

CEO of Food From Britain John Adams stated, G's story embodies everything that the

Food from Britain Export Awards are about. They are living proof that export success

doesn't necessarily require years of experience, you need to do your research, establish a

strategy and stick to it. Sales growth was phenomenal with distribution in almost 700

stores nationwide, annual growth forecasts of 35% and potential for the company to triple

sales by 2012. At the time of writing La Grande Epicerie was still the highest selling store

among all its customers.

Marks of Success

When Noble Foods approached G in late 2009, the timing was ideal for Averdieck as his

company juggled resources addressing a variety of priorities. Management was preparing

to ramp up operations in order to support its expansion across Europe as well as other

English-speaking markets. G's products were performing extremely well in the UK,

Ireland and France and had just entered Germany. Meanwhile its sister brand Fr was

underperforming and there was the constant threat of copy-cats and own-brand products

piggybacking on their success and ultimately eroding brand equity.

As such the friendly acquisition resolved several issues at once. It provided the

springboard for G to target the Australian and New Zealand markets. This would be

supported by leveraging Averdieck's reputation as company founder to sell into the

region's handful of national supermarket chains. Addressing the Fr issue, management

decided to consolidate both product lines under one corporate brand G Puds and invest

in a major re-branding exercise including an overhaul of the packaging design and the

launch of a 2 million integrated advertising campaign G's first, featuring print,

television, online, experiential, radio and public relations activities. This campaign could be

run in many markets optimising returns on investment and represented the first step of the

super-premium brand entering the mainstream.

Conclusion

Reflecting on his company's stellar performance since its launch in 2003, Averdieck put it

down to the people that helped carve out a niche for G Puds as a super-premium dessert

and the lack of innovation in the top end of the market. In Averdieck's estimation, there

aren't many multinationals that have strong premium brands. They tend to say, 'if we're

going to do something we want it to be a 100m opportunity straight away'. New ground

and premium brands are almost always started by entrepreneurs you need that human

touch and big companies don't do that very well. With sales growth continuing in all

markets, G Puds looked set for continued success. It had tapped into several converging

universal trends for quality, convenience and indulgence and single-handedly created a

niche as a super-premium dessert. Using supermarket chains to help drive expansion was

an everlasting gamble mitigated only by G's effective marketing strategy. The retailers

could cancel purchasing orders with little notice forcing brands to perpetually innovate

some or all of the marketing mix. It was clear that James Averdieck had played a massive

role in achieving international success for the brand but opinions remained mixed as to the

future for G Puds as it looked to reaching that 100 million milestone.

Key Learnings For Irish Brands

1. The personal touch and experience of the entrepreneur is often critical to success,

especially when building a premium brand for niche market segments. In

Averdieck's case his knowledge of the industry's structures, forces, habits and

dynamics were critical to fast-tracking G's commercialisation and sales growth.

2. Inspiration and innovation can be simply about tweaking the status-quo. Averdieck

cross-pollinated two ideas to generate a compelling proposition: the patisserie style

mass market product.

3. The product innovation process can benefit greatly from reverse-engineering .

Averdieck began with vision for a patisserie style dessert one could buy in the local

supermarket. He then coordinated everything required to make that dream a reality.

Annexes

Annex 1: Luxuriant Product Shots Reflect Super-Premium Positioning

Annex 2: G's Website Building a Community Around Love For Chocolate

Annex 3: G Packaging and Advertising Building Brand Identity Around a Super-

Premium Positioning