Food Industry Legends – Will Chase - making a packet out of crisps
Will Chase, founder of Tyrrells, took on Tesco for stocking his crisps without his permission. Will of Tyrrells vs Merciless of Tesco should have been a walkover - certainly the Tesco team must have confidently cleared a space for another small-producer scalp - but in true modern-day David vs Goliath style, it was Will that walked away the winner.
Tyrrells, the luxury crisp brand, was born out of a desire to find a use for the knobbly potatoes that weren't pretty enough to make it onto the supermarket catwalk. It quickly established a loyal market - in 2002, farmer Will was still testing the product on a second-hand chip fryer in a shed, and by the end of 2007 he expects to have sold £12 million worth of crisps.
However, it's not been a smooth ride for this SME hero. Will's mother died of cancer when he was 14 and he left school soon after to help look after the farm. When he was 20, his father decided to stop farming and Will borrowed £200,000 to buy Tyrrell Court Farm from him. By the early nineties he was paying 28 per cent compound interest and by 1992 he was bankrupt. He became depressed and left his young family and travelled to Australia, where he stayed until he was accused of 'running away' by his soon-to-be-ex wife.
Back in Herefordshire, Will knew he needed to build a brand that would give him a foothold in a niche market. When people spend 85p on a packet of Tyrrells they're buying into a brand as much as getting a bag of crisps. While it can never claim to be a healthy snack, Tyrrells appeals to the consumer who cares about the provenance of their food. It only uses potatoes grown on the farm, doesn't use additives or pesticides and aims to be certified organic. The potato slices are fried in sunflower oil and flavourings are free of GM ingredients.
Unlike many local producers, Will has refused the advances of supermarkets, with the exception of Waitrose, because of its fair treatment of local producers. Last year Will heard from some of his 6,000 independent retailers that they were being undercut by Tesco, who had sourced the product from the grey market and were selling it at a discount.
Will, undeterred by the size of his opponent, threatened to sue. Tesco refused to stop selling his product, so he decided to hit them where it really hurt and told his story to the press. Despite the fact that Tesco doesn't need Tyrrell’s permission to sell their goods, they could obviously see the damage it was doing to their reputation and soon announced they were removing the product from their shelves.
Will has profited well from his principles. Shortlisted for the SME National Business Awards, his luxury crisp has succeeded in a market where major companies, such as Golden Wonder, have failed. He has a 35 per cent profit margin on his product and the company has been valued at approximately £35 million.
In a recent article in The Sunday Times (Enterprising Britain, 4 November) Will revealed plans to set up distillery and start producing vodka and gin using potatoes that are too small to turn into chips. His long-term plan is to grow Tyrrell’s into a £100m quality food and drink brand.
Will puts his success down to a combination of the quality of the product and the brand behind it. But we think there's a third vital ingredient - the personality of the founder. A man that takes on Tescos and wins, scores a point for SMEs everywhere.
Editor's noteTyrrell's has just announced a deal with Sainsbury's! Has our hero fallen after all...!?
