Amazing Artisans: Ali and Gregor, Founders of Gregor’s Umami Dressing & Marinade

This week, Kitchen Table Projects went on a unique taste tour and got chatting to Ali and Gregor, founders and creators of Gregor’s Umami Dressing & Marinade. We loved hearing about their journey from quirky kitchen table concept to successful shop ready product, and thought their story provides a really helpful and honest insight into the highs and lows of a starting up your own food business.

Tell us the story of your business. How did you come up with the idea?

We have always both enjoyed trying new flavours and foods and, some time last year, Tim came up with this fantastic salad dressing recipe that combined the tartness of Japanese salt-pickled plums with the sweetness of both miso and apple balsamic. The dressing intensifies the umami (the fifth taste, along with salt, sour, sweet and bitter) profiles in food. I was instantly addicted, and urged Tim to persuade others to try it.

We spent a good few months researching the market and looking at the competition. We held tasting sessions to get feedback from potential customers, and started experimenting using our dressing on all sorts of different foods, as well as building a solid business plan before we even considered taking the plunge. There were so many factors to take into account, such as deciding on our branding, packaging options, costing our ingredients and securing business mentors and funding. We are fortunate enough to have a very talented bunch of friends. Dinners (with plenty of wine) were offered in return for website design and accounting. Shares were exchanged for funding and branding design. It was their support and encouragement that kept us driving forward. After lots of highs and lows, we finally soft launched in a few local retailers in September 2013. It was such a proud moment to finally see our product actually stocked in a shop.

What was your motivation for starting your own business?

Neither of us has ever desired to have the traditional 9-5 job. Working for ourselves means we certainly put in more hours than if we were employed by someone else, but our time is flexible. I could be approving designs for a flyer at ten in the evening or working on invoices at five in the morning if I can’t sleep. Being your own boss is risky and requires a lot of motivation but the benefits of being the decision makers and realising your goals outweigh the negatives.

What is the best thing about being an entrepreneur?
Gosh there are so many exciting aspects; first and foremost, receiving positive feedback from our customers. We often do tasting events and it’s fabulous when people say they love our product. We also really enjoy visiting the trade shows and other events. Meeting other small producers and hearing their stories and swapping advice is great and really helps us to feel part of a community.

What challenges have you come across?

There have been so many times I have just wanted to tear my hair out, curl up in a corner and sob. We were put back three months on our launch when our packaging factory made a huge error on our pouches. We had 20,000 pouches that couldn’t be used and had to wait a further twelve weeks for new ones to be printed. So what was, initially, to be a spring launch was put off till September, so that was a lot of trade that we missed.

The biggest disaster almost put us out of business before we had even started. We received an order for 1,200 units when we first launched. We were over the moon, even though in order to fulfil the order we had to use all our available capital sourcing ingredients. To cut a (very) long story short, the purchaser apparently did not receive the pro forma email from me, indicating the prices – and he was under the impression we were supplying the pouches for free as a promotional offer. It was a nightmare. He refused to pay our wholesale price but eventually agreed to pay cost. This meant we worked our socks off for days (and into the night) just to break even. As we had used all our capital to fill the order, we could not produce any further dressing until he paid up. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen until we threatened him with legal action. It was very messy and stressful and a mistake we will never make again. If you get a big order through, always insist on getting paid upfront (or at least for half the order) and make sure you get signed confirmation from the purchaser agreeing to your prices. It is rare to encounter unscrupulous individuals, but sadly on occasion it happens.

What advice would you give to someone thinking about starting their own business?

Probably the most important thing I could advise anyone is to know your product and know your market. What makes your product stand out and who will want to buy it? Identify your USP and use that to promote your brand.

Secondly, try to remain flexible and open to suggestions. You may think you have the next best thing since sliced bread, but get out there, ask for people’s opinions and take this feedback on board. I was determined to package our dressing in lovely chunky glass bottles, spending weeks contacting manufacturers of bottles, corks, and labels and working out our costings. In the meantime, we were handing out small sampling sachets for people to try to get the feedback on the product. One taster (a food writer) said “You know what? I really like the idea of having it in a pouch. It takes up less space in the cupboard and when you have a big bottle of dressing it just gets used a couple of times then goes to waste in the back of the fridge.” Of course, she was right. I was so determined to have my beautiful bottles that I hadn’t even entertained an alternative. Had we gone with bottling the dressing each unit would have cost the consumer around seven pounds. Also, logistically, for warehousing and freight we would have been spending a fortune. I shudder to think where we would be now had we gone with the bottles (but they were gorgeous!)

What kind of business support do you want to receive or wished you had received?

We were fortunate that we had a lot of support. We attended the East London Small Business Centre where we were offered a fabulous mentor who helped us set up our business and still gives us ongoing (free) advice. The British Library offers all sorts of events for start-ups and they also have some fabulous free research resources. We also spoke to a lot of other start-ups and found that most people really do want to help. We are all in this together, so don’t feel afraid to ask people in the industry for help or advice.

What would you like to see in a food hub that showcases new producers?

I think a food hub for new producers is a great idea. It would be useful to have regular informal get-togethers in which food producers get to swap stories, advice and so on. Perhaps if people have questions, they could be posted on an online forum where others can respond with their advice/suggestions.

What do you think of our big idea and what we're trying to achieve?

It’s great that you are supporting and encouraging new producers. When you are just starting out it’s so important to be seen, to talk to people and to make new connections. In terms of the shop, it might be an idea to have a different featured producer each week – specifically promoting their product with tastings/offers and product information. Both Tim and I wish you the very best for your exciting new venture and look forward to watching you grow!

We loved chatting to Ali and Gregor, and think they are heading in a very exciting direction with their quirky dressings. You can order their dressings from their website, or if your keen to chat with them yourselves, then drop them a tweet @gregorsdressing or find them on facebook here.

Are you an Amazing Artisan who wants to be featured on our blog? We'd love to hear from you- drop us a Tweet @KitchTablePro with the hashtag #AmazingArtisan or send us a message to hello@kitchentableprojects.com