One amazing mission to make a comeback.
It was 6:30pm on Wednesday 21 October 2015 which is not a day I’ll be forgetting about any time soon – the ieat fairytale story we’d been writing for the previous 18 months took a dark turn. We had found out on BBC News that the factory we had used to make our chilled meals had, completely unbeknownst to us, gone into administration. We were just ‘collateral damage’ with all of the great things we had achieved, through no fault of our own, now gone.
Things went from a hundred to zero almost overnight. The ieat management team left the business and we had to let go of all of our staff. What was already a lonely role, became even lonelier. A bunch of new brands came into the space we had left on shelf. There was one point where we had less than £10k in the bank account and I began to question whether the quest for a quality shepherd’s pie was really worth all this hassle.
“Why do we fall? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.”
When I reflect back on things, I realise how game-changing the 10 days in Portugal were. It’s amazing what some blue sky and sunshine can do. I locked myself away in a villa, which a friend generously donated having seen my state, and I just sat and pondered. For the first two days I didn’t even pick up a pen or my laptop. I just sat and stared out the window and let my brain breathe. It needed it.
By the fifth day I’d put together a whole new plan. The business steps to develop that plan will follow in another blog but I felt alive for the first time in ages. By day eight I had found Luca, a key cog in the new plan and who, despite only speaking to him just once over the phone, I knew would be a gem for the business. By day 10 I was so ready to get going I was even working on the plane on the way back to London.
“Verily, with every hardship comes ease”
It has been the hardest 23 months of my life. But with the difficulties there have been immense blessings. When you purify your intentions, doors just seem to open everywhere. Luca Floris, an award winning chef at a flagship food business agreed to join us, a fab new British manufacturer came on board and we secured a free-range chicken supply chain (the first mainstream meal brand halal or non-halal to do so).
More doors kept opening. Azam Jaafri, the founder of competitor brand ‘Foodery’ that had launched after ieat had come off shelf approached me with a proposal of the purest intentions. This then progressed quickly into us acquiring his brands and bringing him into the team with the vision that we will achieve more by working together than working against each other. A selfless move on his part and nothing but a pure blessing on ours.
By Shazia Saleem, Founder ‘Oh My Good Nosh’!
