With more than 20 years-experience with multinational food business Mars, Andrew Loader was looking for a new project to try doing business a little differently.
Openway Food Co. is the result. With co-founder Gavin Evans and backing from private equity group Five V, Openway acquired three health food companies, Annex Foods with brands including Red Tractor, healthy snack company Table of Plenty, and Keep in Cleaner.
Loader talks about the different approach, with the acquisitions designed to build the companies rather than break them up and create a platform that makes health food easier to understand and for consumers to find.
It has allowed the individual business founders to determine how much they are involved in the business, from still running the company to focussing on an area like R&D.
Loader explains that one of the benefits has been that during the disruption of recent years, there has been a depth of experience across the business that has helped keep the focus on goals rather than just the immediate difficulties.
We discuss Loader’s thoughts on the health food aisle, and that there are many people who still don’t know what is down there, if it is healthy and whether they can trust it.
We look at the challenges for retailers and the need for brands to keep bringing new products to the shelves and the churn that occurs when that doesn’t happen.
For Loader, one way to address this is the Openway model or others, which collaborate on certain parts of operations and put greater pressure on technology to help fill some of the gaps when it comes to innovation.
We look at how Openway is finding new functionalities for heritage foods, adding collagen for example to Red Tractor Oats. Loader updates up on its launch in the US and the favourable feedback from retailers at a traditional product but offering new benefits.
We end with Loader saying while the launch of Red Tractor and Raise the Bar into the US market is a major focus at the moment, Openway is committed to making consistent quality products, managing the complex supply chain. and building something for tomorrow.
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