Episode highlights

“The turning point was when one of my three sons finished his university degree. He’d done a degree in marketing, and one day came to me and said, ‘Dad, do you think there is scope in the commercialization of that little ramp that you’ve built?’ and I said, ‘Joseph, I hadn’t even thought of that’.” – 4:15 – Andy Sutton

“We’re quite fortunate, in that we have different skill sets that complement each other. The engineering side of things is something that I’ve got a lot of experience in, where Joseph’s skills are very much more around marketing.” – 8:00 – Andy Sutton

“Almost straight away we were forced into a product redesign, to enable us to get to something that the customer wants, and most importantly the customer will pay for. You can do as many surveys as you’d like, but the acid test is whether they’ll put their hand in their pocket and pay you money for it.” – 20:35 – Andy Sutton

“I would say the dedication every day to overcome obstacles is Joseph’s best trait. Startup life isn’t isn’t all fun and games. If I was to categorise it, there’s more difficult stuff than easy stuff. So having the constitution to dig in and get through that is the thing I’d be most proud of Joseph.” – 33:20 – Andy Sutton

“I have had not only the shareholders’ and business’ best interests at heart, but I’ve also had the best interests of Joseph and Emma, and indeed my other two sons as well. It’s an obvious thing to say, but I don’t think you can do one in isolation of the other.” – 41:00 – Andy Sutton

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Episode highlights

“Christina and I have had jobs since we could remember. We had two or three jobs on the weekend. I think when you grow up from having that work ethic, you then grow up doing the work and wanting to be successful at that.” – 10:35 – Niki Jenman

“We do think it’s very valuable for us to spend some time together – even though we’ve got partners and other family, we do make an effort to try and have some fun together as well.” – 19:00 – Niki Jenman 

“We have our customers and potential customers coming on board doing the taste tests. They tell us the results that they found against other competitors of ours – we listen to that a lot.” – 25:15 – Christina Veal

“We don’t want to lose that customer service and reliability. A lot of our competitors, if you did get a long summer, they would let some of their customers down, which we can jump on because we don’t let our customers now.” – 30:00 – Christina Veal

“Try and hold it back a bit. Have patience. And I think you’ve got to sit from both sides at all times.” – 38:15 – Christina Veal

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Episode highlights

“I’ve never trained in marketing, it came with the role. My background was very much in the hospitality industry, but I see hospitality as a word that should be at the forefront of most businesses.” – 15:30 – Nelly Hall

“Since having a family of his own, Tom has treated Alitex more as a family. The softness and genuine care for the business, and everyone in it, is almost top priority.” – 29:00 – Nelly Hall

“The salesperson didn’t know who the client was, and I went inside, and I said, ‘David Beckham’s in the greenhouse’ – I think the whole building tilted on its side as everyone rushed to go and discreetly peer out the windows.” – 38:10 – Nelly Hall

“One of the things we’ve discovered is that the interest in the legalisation of marijuana in the US means that more wealthy, young people are wanting to create their own harvest as it were. We’re learning on our feet!” – 45:30 – Tom Hall

“If you can find and hold onto people you trust and love, then business becomes life, and that becomes worthwhile.” – 1:11:00 – Tom Hall

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Episode highlights

“I felt a lot of pressure on me to find this information for my late friends’ families. That’s when we conceived the idea of Lyfeguard, because I thought to myself, ‘What happens to my family if the same thing happens to me?’” – 3:05 – Gary Stewart

“Always remember that it’s business when you’re having these conversations, and separate your family and business life.” – 59:00 – Fraser Stewart

“What I think we really need to do is appeal to all generations. How else can this app be useful for me right now? ” – 17:35 – Fraser Stewart

“Trust for me is everything. I’m a great believer in trusting people until they give you a reason not to. I think that’s helped me in good stead, and that’s exactly the relationship we’ve got.” – 24:30 – Gary Stewart

“There’s always going to be pain for families, they’ve got to grieve when they’ve lost someone they love. But to make sure there’s no red tape and paperwork on top of that, if we can answer that then I think we’ve done extremely well.” – 46:00 – Fraser Stewart

“You need a team around you with different skills. I’m a tech guy, but Fraser is more creative, and what a privilege it is to work with my son.” – 7:30 – Gary Stewart

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Episode highlights

“Because of the way the building was designed, we were quite sympathetic to make sure it fits within the landscape quite comfortably as it feels like an agricultural building.” – 6:00 – Ash Sinfield

“If you’re starting a business a little bit later in your lifecycle, it actually gives you the advantage of having been through those experiences previously and understood what works with us, and what doesn’t.” – 12:45 – Nick Sinfield

“It’s important that the team doesn’t feel constrained. It’d be a big concern if the team felt that our presence would inhibit their performance.” – 17:35 – Nick Sinfield

“Ash is doing more work on the community side now, which we think is really important for the business, but I think it’s also an enjoyable part of what you do.” – 33:20 – Nick Sinfield

“It was challenging to start a business during Covid that challenges the norm – what we do isn’t really done anywhere else in the UK, and I’m proud of that.” – 34:30 – Ash Sinfield

“Hospitality has suffered much abuse, particularly in kitchens around working hours. One of our key decisions when we opened was: that’s not going to be Teals.” – 44:30 – Nick Sinfield

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Episode highlights

“The best thing is to try and understand everyone’s capacity. So my capacity might be up here, and then someone else might be even higher. Since we know each other so well, and we know what capacity we can work on, that has helped us.” – 3:20 – Rashintha Rodrigo

“One of the reasons we’ve survived is because we were doing different things. But then also one of the reasons we clashed is because we all want the best for the business.” – 11:50 – Rashintha Rodrigo

“We started the whole thing to be Sri Lankan, so we try to have at least a few Sri Lankans in every site, to keep that culture going forward.” – 19:40 – Rashintha Rodrigo

“That was one of the times the whole family/friend element was at its peak because we all just got together. It was just about survival and looking after our staff, most of them are friends and family so you can’t let them down.” – 24:35 – Rashintha Rodrigo

“When we were younger we took more risks and were willing to do radical changes. Now, we have to think 100 times if we even take something out of the menu.” – 33:45 – Rashintha Rodrigo

 “Understand your team’s strengths and weaknesses – a few times that’s helped us massively.” – 41:25 – Rashintha Rodrigo

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