Taking stock: growing company Spring Bone Broth gets support from the North Essex Economic Board and Backing Essex Business to tackle growing energy bills
Spring Bone Broth, based in West Hanningfield, just south of Chelmsford, received advice and support to help with their electricity bills and moving to a new supplier.
Before founding and becoming managing director of the company, Tom Pryor had a varied career – working in sales and marketing in the automotive industry, which found him then working in the Middle East for the best part of 10 years to have a hand in the exciting and growing industry there.
In 2016, after two decades working in the automotive industry for brands like Audi and McLaren, Tom was at a crossroads – come back to the UK and continue working in that industry, or start working for himself doing something he really loved.
Wanting to start a business centred around something different, Tom toyed with the idea of a company based around bone broth – a product which was becoming more and more popular around the world, but had not yet taken off in the UK.
Bone broth is a clear drink made from animal bones - a versatile and simple concoction, which can be consumed as a warm drink, broth for ramen dishes, or diluted and used as stock in endless recipes. A rising star featured on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, bone broth was becoming more well known, with sought-after benefits ranging from gut health, delivering key nutrients, to improving skin and energy, with celebrities seen drinking it to take advantage of the health benefits.
Stirring things up
With Tom identifying that there was a definite gap in the UK market for top quality bone broth, he started to set into motion plans to create Spring Bone Broth – a company that would offer pure bone broth based products, appealing to the growing appetite of UK consumers that wanted to take advantage of the health benefits.
At first, Tom and his business partners looked at outsourcing the production of their bone broth – but with this not possible due to the new nature of the product, they began to plan how they would manage production themselves.
“We looked at finding someone to outsource and produce it for us but that quickly changed to producing it ourselves. It has worked well for us, so we could have more control over the business and our supply, and I think our customers resonate with the fact we make it ourselves” - Tom Pryor, Founder of Spring Bone Broth
After trialling production methods and recipes, Spring Bone Broth sold their first cup of hot bone broth in March 2017 – growing more and more popular, they moved into their first official premises in late 2018.
With an ever-increasing number of ramen shops in key UK cities, and Bone Broth becoming almost a buzzword on social media platforms and U.S television shows, Spring Bone Broth was experiencing steady growth. Selling both online and at regular farmers markets, as well as supplying to numerous independent stockists up and down the country, the business was taking off and getting noticed – employing several full and part time members of staff and drivers to make deliveries of their products to customers.
“It moved away from people just having it for health reasons, and reached a new audience who it might not have been interested before. Ramen shops in London and cities have really driven popularity and awareness about the product too, and people are starting to buy from us directly”
Seasoned professionals in the market
By the arrival of COVID19, the business was in great shape – growing quickly and in the process of taking private investment to fuel further development. With the pandemic came economic uncertainty, which halted their growth plans and shifted the company focus to survival during a time when the stores and farmers markets they sold to temporarily closed their doors.
With health and wellness trends on another upswing during the lockdowns and the pandemic, Spring Bone Broth experienced unpredictable demand on the business – 6 weeks of extremely high sales, to a drop off in demand due to a heatwave. This highlighted to the team a need to adapt the business – to gain more steady and larger customers to sustain operations in the long run.
Having then come out the other side of the pandemic, the business was able to take on financial investment and upgrade their kitchen operations – setting them up for the future, and enabling them to meet the demand of more and bigger customers.
Now supplying their regular farmers market locations as well as 150 independent stores (with this number on the rise), Spring Bone Broth began to look further and cracking an even bigger market.
These growth plans came to a grinding halt this year, when Tom and the team realised they had been overcharged for their electricity bill for their premises – with charges almost topping £60,000. Almost triple their budget for electricity, this unprecedented bill threatened to topple the business and their operations. Having found that the government support for electricity bills for businesses hadn’t been applied, they began to seek help – getting in contact with the local council and support services to see what they could do.
“It made things really difficult for the business when we were trying to grow”
A recipe for future growth
At first, they began to investigate sourcing their electricity directly, and if they could do anything about the existing charges applied to the company. After getting put in touch with Robert Laurie, Business Advisory Manager at Backing Essex Business, they were able to benefit from fully funded support under the North Essex Economic Board, an initiative funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, in a bid to lift up businesses and enterprises in the area. Through this support, they were able to receive advice and practical support, by first being put in touch with a solicitor to see what their options were.
Tom was also able to get some advice and guidance on where to go next – and introduced by Robert to a new supplier which would ensure their electricity bills for the coming year and winter were more in line with their budget, so there were no more surprises and they could focus on the growth of the business again.
“Rob introduced us to another supplier and helped us to get some understanding of what our pricing should have been, and helped us to get in a better position for the coming winter and year, which is a bit more realistic.
I thought we would get to a point where we were worrying about how we were going to protect ourselves, to make sure that the coming year we weren't held hostage today by our energy bills.”
Now, Tom and Spring Bone Broth have some peace of mind when it comes to their outgoings for the coming year – leaving them room to focus on and look forward to growing the company even more. With some exciting plans in the works and a hope to break into some mainstream UK supermarkets with their products next year, we can hope to see Spring Bone Broth becoming even more of a household name in the not-too-distant future!
