Chocs away: Britain's sweet tooth has provided rich pickings

Company: Gu Chocolate Puds
Founder: James Averdieck
Age at start: 37
Background: Worked for St Ivel for nine years in sales and marketing
Start Year: 2003
Business: Desserts and puddings

James Averdieck, founder of Gü Chocolate Puds, the high quality desserts and puddings company, has cooked up a series of products that have found their way remarkably rapidly into over 3,000 supermarkets in the UK, as well many other food retailers.

James spotted a gap in the market: There was a serious lack of high quality desserts that could be bought and consumed at home.

Since launching in 2003, Gü Chocolate Puds has grown into a business which generated revenues of £7.5m in 2005 and projects to double that amount in 2006.

Entrepreneurial ambition
James had always wanted to be an entrepreneur and other members of his family had run their own businesses.

He had run ventures while at university and feels that it was only a matter of time before he did so again - and his father had drummed into him the belief that the key to a successful business was "having the right product".

James says that the view might be obvious, but it is a crucial part of a business that many people fail to get right.

James noticed that many of the fine desserts found in the patisseries of France and Belgium were often not available in the UK. There were also very few brands associated with high quality desserts, and he thought the British public could do with one.

It was an industry that he knew well as he was a member of the board at St Ivel, the desserts company and had previous experience at Safeway.

He thought that British tastes were more sophisticated than the range on offer in most supermarkets suggested, and that, when it came down to it: "Brits love a decent pudding."

He also believed that many people who hosted dinner parties were accustomed to eating at good restaurants, but perhaps lacked the skills or time to make their own pudding. James decided to create a "premium brand" that captured the essence of good chocolate.

James saw himself as more of a "sales and marketing guy" so he knew he needed someone who could provide the food and manufacturing side of the business.

However, while he was still working for St Ivel, he had come to know a company called Rensow Patisserie, at a trade show in Spain in 2000. They were well established in the airline food industry and were looking to open up new lines of business.

In Rensow, he saw a business that could manufacture good quality food in an efficient way. James knew the retail market and was confident he could do the selling, so the partners felt that they "covered all the bases".

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In January 2003 the joint venture was put together with an initial investment of around £100,000. The company, which was later to become known as Gü, began creating its products based partly on the foods that James had sampled on the continent.

The first product they designed was a chocolate pudding presented in a glass ramekin. James felt that the quality of the food and its presentation meant that it had a restaurant quality, it could also be customised by the consumer and perhaps even passed off as their own creation.

Creating the brand
Although James believed he had both a great product and that there was a gap in the market, he knew that in order to establish the business in the market he would also require a great brand.

Despite a background in sales and marketing himself, he felt his business needed something special, so he hired a branding company, Big Fish, who had experience in conceiving and designing premium brands.

This was a considerable risk on Gü's part as he had to outlay a significant amount of money, and he was also putting the future of his company into someone else's hands.

However, Big Fish had an impressive client list and experience of working with premium brands. The company also show considerable passion for James' business.

The director of Big Fish, Perry Haydn Taylor, loved James' product and conceived of the Gü brand himself. The brand was the only idea that he came up with but decided to sell it to James in a somewhat unorthodox manner.

Perry told James that the Gü brand would be perfect, however he also fabricated that it already belonged to a European company.

"They showed it to me and I thought 'what a brilliant name, but they've beaten us to it!' - I was totally hooked," James remembers.

Certain that the brand was right, Taylor revealed the truth and James took the name as his own.

However, he wanted to test the brand out. So he took some of the early product boxes and cheekily slipped them on to the shelf of his local supermarket. He then stood back and watched the shoppers take them off the shelf - further proof that he had a winner.

James says: "I think you have to seduce your customers twice: once with the packaging and then again with the product itself. If you do that you will have loyal customers."

Cracking the supermarkets
In order to sell Gü in the massive quantities that he wanted, James knew that he had to get his products into the supermarkets.

His previous experience in the market was, of course, a major benefit to him, but selling a new product to supermarkets from an unknown new company is a very tough nut to crack.

He knew from his experience at St Ivel that even if they liked the product, the supermarkets would need satisfying about lots of issues such as food safety, factory hygiene and ability to fulfil demand.

However, as his business partner was already an established food manufacturer many of the tough questions could be confidently answered. But nevertheless he was no longer working for St Ivel and was now the head of a new company with no prior history.

"Supermarket buyers aren't there to do your business plan for you. They are incredibly busy people and are approached constantly with new ideas. To stand out from the rest of the pack you need to offer real innovation. "I feel also that it is really important that you actually get to meet the buyers so that they can see the passion that has gone into the product. In my case it was a question of calling the right people and immediately establishing credentials to get that initial meeting."

Gü launched with Waitrose and Sainsbury's in June 2003. Others followed and a year later Gü was supplying puddings the length and breadth of the country.

Where are they now?
Since it began trading Gü has extended its product lines and now has a range of puddings, souffles and ice cream.

The company brand has become enormously successful and James Averdieck now buys other products that he likes and uses the Gü brand to sell them.

The company employs more than 40 staff and James says that his company is expected to make revenues of £11.5million in 2006.

David Lester is a successful entrepreneur, the founder of the small business website startups.co.uk and the co-author of How They Started (Crimson Publishing, £12.95)