We take five minutes with 27 year old Pippa Murray, the founder of Pip & Nut. After leaving her corporate job, Pippa launched Pip & Nut, born from a shed in Central London. If you’re already nuts about Pip, read our interview below…
What inspired you to create your delicious nut butters? How did it all start?
Starting a business wasn’t actually something that I ever thought I’d do, in fact I’d always worked in the public sector – quite a different world altogether! But like a lot of businesses the idea for Pip & Nut was born out of a frustration and general dissatisfaction with the products that were out there. I eat a lot of peanut and nut butter as I’m runner. It’s a natural source of protein and I love it as a post run reward. However most brands that you find in supermarkets have palm oils and sugar hidden in them and it just didn’t sit well with me. On the other end of the spectrum those brands that were ‘cleaner’ were well a little too healthy looking and I got fed up with the fact that many health foods, including nut butter, were always positioned as something that was frankly a little boring and worthy. Considering that nut butter is so delicious I felt that there wasn’t a brand that was doing this amazing product justice so the idea for Pip & Nut emerged. To first clean up the product and second introduce a brand that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
As a brand we’ve set out to make healthy food delicious and challenge the perception that you have to sacrifice something if you choose a more natural and healthier option.
We hear you entered a competition with Escape The City, can you tell us a little bit more about how that helped you on your business journey?
Launching a business can take you in all sorts of weird and wonderful directions and in my case it saw me living in a shed for three months thanks to the guys at Escape the City!
About eight months before I launched Pip & Nut I was at a point with the company where I needed to go full time to properly get the products to market but London is an expensive city to live in and I just couldn’t afford to quit my job. It was around that time that I spotted a competition that Escape The City were running called ‘Escape to the Shed’. It was an opportunity for one start up to live rent-free in a garden shed in their back garden in order remove their overheads and help accelerate the business. I applied on a complete whim and miraculously won. I quit my job the day I found out and one month later, and ever so slightly shell shocked, I moved in.
Granted it was an unconventional thing to do but it allowed me to take the leap to launch the brand without the risk or having to move out of London altogether. I’m incredibly grateful to the Escape the City team for their role they played in my start up journey.
Crowdfunding can be quite a daunting process for many budding entrepreneurs, do you have any tips you can share?
It’s not as scary as you might think but the key with crowdfunding is to make sure you’ve done your homework. First things first, your business needs to be ready to take on external finance and by that I mean the money you are looking to raise needs to go directly to scaling your company. For instance, when I raised money on Crowdcube, an equity crowdfunding site, everything was ready to go and all I needed was the capital to place the first order with my manufacturer.
Another great tip is to make sure you’ve lined up some investment before hand. I did a fair amount of pitching and had about 60% of the £120k that I raised pre-confirmed. In doing this you can ask those investors to put their money in straight away, providing some momentum behind your pitch right from the start. If you get enough of that momentum the crowd should take over and you’ll be pretty likely to hit your funding target.
Finally, keep it simple in order to make it easy for people to buy into what you’re doing. Communicate your business in a concise manner so investors know what they are getting. Clearly lay out your USPs, brand vision and values, and route to market. If, like Pip & Nut, your business hasn’t started trading yet your business is most likely pretty simple so there’s no point in overcomplicating things.
Where are your nut butters made, and how did you start the recipe development? Was it a trial and error kitchen job?
We outsource our production but every recipe that you see in stores has initially been trialled and tested in my kitchen. It’s a really fun part of my job coming up with new recipes and ideas. In fact I always find it funny when I talk about developing new products as people always assume that this involves lab coats and goggles but it’s not the case at all. I use my robot coupe blender, some good scales and play around with flavours until I come across something that I think works. I then test them out my team to see what they think and tweak some more.
So what exactly sets Pip and Nut apart from other market competitors?
A few things. Firstly, we use really good quality ingredients and carefully pick what variants of almonds and peanuts we use to ensure they taste best. Like with apples, there are of varieties, some sweet some bitter, so making sure we get that right really does make a difference in what our products taste like. We also innovate with flavours. We were the first brand to bring Coconut Almond Butter to the market and it’s now our best seller! And finally but importantly, our brand. It’s fun, youthful and has a ton of personality.
We love your on the go squeeze packs, did these come before the full jar products? Will you be expanding into other on the go products?
Thanks! Our squeeze packs were inspired by my hatred of sugary energy gels, however, the idea came after the jar range. It’s another way that we look to challenge the category by allowing people to snack on nut butter. More and more you see people eating nut butter straight from the jar and at other times of the day, not just a breakfast, so our squeeze packs play upon these new consumer habits.
We do have new products in the pipeline but it’s all top secret….
Can you tell our readers why you don’t include palm oil in your products?
Palm oil is one of those ingredients that’s hidden in so many different products from lipstick to pot noodles. In the case of peanut butter it acts as an emulsifier and doesn’t do anything in terms of adding flavour but merely emulsifies the product and stops some of the oil separation that you see in natural nut butters.
The bad thing about palm oil is that it’s particularly high in saturated fats, which isn’t great for your health and has been linked to increasing cholesterol levels. That and the fact that it’s one of the biggest causes of deforestation means we prefer to keep our products simple and focus on real ingredients.
There are many ladies who are afraid of eating too much fat. What is the difference between good fats and bad fats and what fats constitute to Pip and Nut butters?
Fats are definitely not the enemy, in fact often products that are low fat are high in sugar. Nut butters are packed with naturally occurring unsaturated fats, aka good fat. This fat has lots of health benefits and can actually help you maintain good levels of cholesterol. The fats that you need to watch out for are saturated or transfats, typically found in processed foods, and are causes of heart disease and high cholesterol.
From experience, we have noticed that your nut butters have the best consistency and barely any oil separation. What’s the secret?
We mill our products twice which gives them a silky smooth consistency which we think makes them the perfect product to swirl into porridge, spoon into smoothies, and spread on toast!
You have just launched a new Cashew and honey flavour. Can you tell us why you chose this particular combination?
I’m always looking at different flavour pairings, the Coconut Almond butter for instance was inspired by macaroons! In the case of our Honey Cinnamon Cashew Butter well, you often see honey coated cashews so I felt that in principle it should work in a nut butter. I then tried adding cinnamon and it really took it up a notch and provided a more rounded flavour profile.
Are you planning on expanding Pip and Nut into other foodie areas?
We are looking at other food areas. We’ve had great success with our brand within our existing product range; in the space of just 15 months we’re now in over 2300 stores! So naturally this means we’re looking at opportunities outside our category where we think as a brand we could add value. I guess the only catch is that anything that we do expand into probably would need to contain nuts – it is in the name after all!
Are there any other nut butter flavours in the pipe line? What about a healthy take on Nutella?
Yes we have two new flavours landing in June 2016. I can’t reveal them yet but check out our instagram page in the month leading up to it and we’ll be teasing people with some hints as to what they are!
Which nut butter flavour is your favourite, if you can possibly choose?
That’s like picking my favourite child! I love them all! But at a push I’d probably go for the coconut almond butter. I have a bit of a sweet tooth so this one hits the spot with me!
How do you best enjoy nut butters, can you give us your favourite recipe/pairing?
Nut butter is really versatile. I tend to enjoy a spoonful or two in my porridge in the morning with some slices of banana on top and if I get hungry during the day I like to have some on rice cakes or slices of apple as a snack.
Did working at the Science museum give you any exciting tips/ideas? We imagine you churning nut butters in a laboratory coat?
Not quite! I’d say my life at the museum was pretty different to what I do now. In fact when I was setting up the company I lived a bit of a double life as I didn’t tell many people what I was up to on the side. When I handed in my notice I think my boss thought I was crazy!
What is life like in the shoes of Pippa Murray? Can you tell us what a typical day entails?
Varied. There really isn’t one day that’s the same, which is one of the things that I love most about running my own company. I’m an early riser and will aim to be up by 6.30am and at my desk by 7.45am after a short cycle from my flat in Bermondsey, London, to my office in Hackney. From there my day can take on a number of different tangents. At the moment I’m working on a few new products so everything from product development to packaging designs will take my attention. I also manage our supply chain so I can find myself delving into spread sheets to complete forecasts for the following months or arranging production runs.
The best days though are the ones where I’m out and about. Whether that’s serving breakfast for 100 people at a cool office in London, meeting other brands to look at marketing collaborations or selling at a trade fair, I really enjoy being on the front line and actually seeing how people react to the brand. Naturally being a small brand that’s growing fast my hours are long and it’s rare that I’m ever fully switched off from thinking about Pip & Nut in one way or another. I genuinely love it though so whilst some people might think working till 10 most nights would be a nightmare, when it’s something you care deeply about it, somehow it doesn’t seem to feel like work.
What is your favourite way to stay fit and active?
I love going out for runs. I’m not a big fan of gyms as I prefer to get a little fresh air and see a bit of London whilst I’m at it. However I’m a big fan of spinning and my favourite studio is BoomCycle in Shoreditch – they play the best music and the instructors are bundles of energy!
Do you have any favourite London go-to healthy eateries?
I’m probably Ottolenghi’s biggest fan. I have all his cookbooks and wish I could eat at his cafes every day of the week. They have the most beautiful array of Middle Eastern salads displayed in huge mounds on their counter tops. Granger and Co is also a firm favourite. Their brunch menu is really something else.
Last but not least, can you tell us some cafes or restaurants that use Pip and Nut so that we can make sure to get our weekly, or better yet daily hit!
You can find Pip & Nut popping up all over London. The Detox Kitchen serve our cashew butter on toasted rye bread whilst Frame in Kings Cross have us drizzled on waffles, and The Good Life Eatery and the lovely Nanna’s in Islington use our almond butter in their tasty smoothies – hungry yet?