James Averdieck never dreamt that he would one day set up a company selling chocolate puddings, but this rather sweet idea has earned him his just deserts: five years after starting with just a chocolate soufflé, Gü now has 25 products stocked by all the big supermarkets. Along the way, Gü has spawned Frü, a luxury contribution to the five-a-day regime. Turnover has doubled every year and hit £16 million last year.

“My father and grandfather had their own businesses, my identical twin, Ed, is managing director of Nokia Music, and my older brother, Will, is an inventor,” says James. “When I graduated, I hoped to run my own business one day, but I never imagined it would be one specialising in chocolate puddings.”

James, 42, was born in Yorkshire and studied economics at Durham University. He then worked as a management consultant before joining Safeway in 1990. “I did a variety of marketing roles, but it was not my bag and I didn’t want to work for a centralised large company.

“When I married Annie we moved out of London to Wiltshire, where I worked for St Ivel, running its own-label business. It was much more entrepreneurial, but it’s hard for an individual to be entrepreneurial in a large company.” In 1998, James moved to Brussels to build St Ivel’s chilled business in Europe. He spent three years doing deals and discovering Belgian chocolate patisserie — rich, dark and addictive.

“It’s a less sweet, adults-only chocolate with a high cocoa content. Belgian chocolate has anything from 53 to 70 per cent. Our own products are made almost entirely from cream, chocolate and eggs. Of course, they’re slightly wicked, but they’re a small indulgence and that does you good.”

James launched Gü in 2002, believing that UK consumers were moving away from bland, mass-produced products to something more individual and high quality. The trick, however, was to harness this to supermarket distribution: Sainsbury and Waitrose snapped up the first products and the others have followed. Today the company has offices in London, employing 22 people — including a patisserie chef, Fred Ponavoy from Dijon, who develops the recipes — and a sales operation in Paris employing seven. The products are made in the UK, France and Belgium.

“I like to think that as we have grown we have retained the original culture of candour, enjoyment and hard work,” says James. “As a boss, I am demanding but positive. The secret of success is to have great people around you.”

These include his French PA, Myriam Khadir,who came to the UK at 18 to improve her English. “That was 14 years ago — I came as an au pair to a family in Kent and planned to stay for a month,” she says. She stayed in that job for a year and then took a variety of roles in offices, restaurants and a casino.

“I then took three months off, and with all my savings long gone, had to look for work. The job advertisement wanted someone who could speak French. I tried the chocolate soufflé, thought it was delicious and went to the interview. I was only the fifth person to join Gü so I have seen a lot of changes. At first I was involved in everything, including logistics, credit control, office management and customer service. This is the beauty of a small company.

“Being a PA is all about being trustworthy. I still remember the day when James gave me his credit card and PIN and said ‘I trust you’. He’s a great boss and I call him a friend.”

www.gupuds.com

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