Get the latest scale-up news straight to your inbox
Sign up to our quarterly newsletter
Thomas, how did The Turmeric Co. get its start?
My father and I officially founded the Turmeric Co. in 2018, but the range of turmeric shots we brought to market at that time was over a decade in the making.
At the start of my career as a professional footballer, I underwent major surgeries that left me with inflammation and swelling in my knees. They say innovation is born from necessity – well, at this time my father turned to natural nutrition to help me recover from those surgeries and the pain I was experiencing. He started to experiment with various ingredients and extraction processes in the kitchen, using raw turmeric alongside ginger root, watermelon, pomegranate, pineapple and black pepper to develop his own range of blends.
Not only did these turmeric shots help me to get back on track after my surgeries, I found they produced all sorts of other benefits. This led us to start looking into the research around turmeric, and we found that its active component, curcumin, was shown to be a fantastic natural anti-inflammatory with a huge range of applications.
It was around this time that health foods and functional beverages were becoming an emerging trend. However, what we noticed was that many of these products weren’t healthy at all – the main ingredients tended to be very sugary apple or orange juices, with only very small amounts of active ingredients. We realised that what we were producing at home was not only far superior than other beverages on the market in terms of ingredients and quality, but could also have a real impact on people’s lives and lifestyles. That was when we decided to bring the Turmeric Co. to market.
What was your biggest motivation in introducing The Turmeric Co. to the market?
We want to support people on their own wellness journeys by helping them to combat inflammation, and by educating and informing them about natural alternatives. A lot of people know of anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen and diclofenac, but not everyone knows there are organic ways to reduce inflammation too.
We recently commissioned a clinical study with Nottingham Trent University that tracked inflammation by analysing the blood marker C-reactive proteins post-activity and saw a significant reduction in inflammation, as well as a 70% reduction in muscle soreness, among people who had used our product.
Already, we’ve received over 15,000 customer testimonials from people who have noticed a positive impact on their lives from using our products, and that’s our motivation to keep going as a company.
You’ve gone from being a Premier League footballer to the CEO of a successful company. How have you found that transition?
For me, I think the focus and the drive to get it done was almost built into me, having been a professional athlete. To play at the highest level, you have to be competitive, you have to have a drive, you need to want to win. And so going from being a professional footballer to running a business was, in a way, a relatively smooth transition. I think anyone who's a founder or a CEO is truly passionate about becoming great. There's no point just doing things for the sake of doing it. You turn up every day to have a positive impact.
But, certainly, there was a transition period. I have to take on much more responsibility as a business owner. I have to be responsible not just for the running of the business, but its values, its purpose, its vision, and then aligning the organisation towards that common goal and delivering that through processes.
In the fast-moving world of running a scaling business, I imagine careful financial planning is another big consideration for you.
When we were in our early stages, we encountered all sorts of problems – missing filing deadlines, or not receiving payments from invoices. We learned that these sorts of things are unacceptable for a business, so we put in strong measures and structures around the organisation to build discipline and governance.
We started working with BDO early on in our journey. They helped us to understand what good looks like, and how we can operate according to best practice. It wasn’t so much about handing over financial functions, it was more about finding support for the business and gaining an understanding of the processes we needed to implement. Now that we’re moving into our scale-up phase, it’s good to know they’ll be there to help us maximise the value of the work we’re delivering.
I know you work very closely with your customer relationship manager at BDO. How is that relationship benefitting you as you move towards scaling up?
We’ve been really fortunate working with BDO across their full spectrum of services, especially the growth advisory team. They’ve helped us to understand areas of growth and optimisation within our market, and how the investment landscape looks within our sector. It’s great having a direct contact at BDO, as it means I can consult them on anything related to key decisions or key opportunities within the business.
We’ve also really benefited from engaging with BDO’s Business Lens, which has helped us understand our core functions, from people, to process, and how these align with our objectives as an organisation. Having a benchmark is always good, particularly when you’re a scale-up business trying to compare where you are against the industry standard. Particularly in the scale-up phase, where there's so much change happening all of the time, it’s a really valuable tool for us.
Speaking of scaling up, what’s next for The Turmeric Co.?
We've invested a lot into our manufacturing infrastructure, and that has enabled us to run the business in a profitable way. Now we need to invest even more into that infrastructure, as well as our sales channels, and look towards achieving our next stage of growth.
We’re focused on delivering a wider array of products to the market, while still retaining our core values as a brand with an intent and a purpose to change people’s lives. In the health foods and beverages sector, there are only a handful who can really champion that as a core principle in what they’re delivering, and so I think the market is ripe for disruption. By sticking to our core values, I believe we can have a real impact over the next five to ten years.
Do you have any plans for international expansion?
Of course, growing internationally is on our roadmap. We want to become a global business, and we certainly believe that The Turmeric Co. has the potential to appeal to a global market.
The question is, how do we replicate what we've been doing within the UK on a global scale? How do we ensure we can grow internationally without compromising our commitment to quality? Since our product is perishable and made with fresh ingredients, we need to think carefully about our supply chain and our manufacturing. Whether we end up working with third-parties, or taking our product through customs clearance, we need to be sure that every detail is scrutinised from a regulatory perspective.
Finally, what piece of advice would you give to other leaders who are in the process of scaling up their own businesses?
It doesn’t matter what industry you're in, you just need to be passionate about what you're doing. Whether it's people, process, finance, functions, anything at all, you need to approach every challenge with passion. If you're not passionate, you’re not going to be able to push through those barriers.
As a business, we’ve faced all sorts of challenges, from having to scale up our manufacturer, to not having the right people in place, all the way to finances and making sure our product is correctly classified. I think if we weren't genuinely passionate about what we were doing as an organisation, it would have been impossible for us to make it through those challenges.
So my advice would be, that if you want to build a healthy, scalable, and exciting business, make sure you have the passion to see it through.
Need support on your Scale-up journey?
At BDO, we’ve got extensive experience supporting businesses at every stage of the life-cycle, from scale-up, to sustainable growth and through exit or acquisition.
Get in touch with one of our expert advisers to find out more about how we can support your business journey.