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TYRRELLS, the crisp maker, has become the third regional winner in the Bank of
Scotland Corporate Entrepreneur Challenge in association with The Sunday
Times.
The firm, which is based on a family potato farm in Hereford, will receive
interest-free funding of £5m for three years.
Will Chase, 46, founder and managing director of Tyrrells, said the firm
planned to use the money to make vodka from potatoes grown on the farm but
which are too small to turn into crisps.
The company has already begun building a £1m distillery on the farm and hopes
to produce the first batch of vodka by Christmas, with a formal launch next
summer.
Chase said he plans to create the vodka using traditional artisan methods
combined with the latest technology, to produce a high-quality product that
has clear provenance so customers know exactly where the ingredients have
come from.
“We have bought this beautiful copper still from Germany. It is how vodka and
spirits used to be made many years ago. It is quite a laborious process but
the result will be more of an artisan product, a bit like our potato chips,”
he said.
Becoming the Midlands regional winner of the Entrepreneur Challenge has made a
huge difference to the speed with which he could establish Tyrrells vodka in
the market.
“We will get there a lot quicker. Where we intended to be in three years we
will hopefully get to in a year. It gives the people in the company a lot of
confidence to know that Bank of Scotland Corporate is prepared to back
Tyrrells. Success breeds success and it is a great lift to the business and
the brand. It takes it to the next level.”
As well as building the distillery and marketing the vodka, Chase also plans
to use the money to build a visitor centre in a old hop-drying building on
the farm, which has been in his family for three generations.
While making the leap from crisps to vodka might seem an extreme one, the
judges believed that Chase has the track record to prove it can be done.
After going bankrupt in the early 1990s, crippled by the high cost of buying
the family farm from his father and by soaring interest rates, Chase started
Tyrrells with £5,000 of seed money and has since managed to turn it into a
£15m business. He now hopes to grow the company into a £100m global food and
drink firm.
“It may seem like a very risky thing going from a strong business in crisps to
a distillery but it is not really. Vodka is just something else that we can
make on our farm out of potatoes,” he said.
“We will be using the same supply and distribution chain as we use for the
crisps, so it will go very symmetrically with the business we are already
in.” Tyrrells potato chips are currently sold in delicatessens and upmarket
retailers such as Waitrose.
Chase also has long-term plans to make gin and other spirits at the
distillery.
Tyrrells was chosen as the Midlands regional winner from a shortlist of five
finalists that included Grayson Automotive Services, an engine cooling
system manufacturer from Birmingham; Allpay.net, a cash-collec-tion firm
based in Herefordshire; Pall-Ex, a distribution business in Leicestershire;
and Blue Chip, a computer support company from Bedford.
Bob Edmiston, chief executive of IM Group and one of the regional judges, said
of the winner: “We were looking for somebody with entrepreneurial ideas with
a proven record and we were very impressed with the energy, drive and
creativity Will Chase had.”
Describing all the finalists as “excellent”, he added: “I feel that a lot of
the regulations we have to labour under in this country tend to stifle
entrepreneurial spirit. But the five finalists have managed to overcome
those obstacles and still be successful.
“It impressed and encouraged me that there are so many good, interesting ideas
in every sphere of life. We Britons tend to be quite imaginative but often
we come up with the good ideas and somebody else takes them to market. So it
was good to see some people who were doing that successfully and starting
from almost nothing.”
Another judge, Ranjit Singh, chief executive of 2 Sisters Food Group, said
that entrepreneurs needed grit and determination to succeed.
“All of the finalists were of an exceptionally high calibre and showed real
entrepreneurial spirit,” he said. “They were all already very successful
businesses in what they had achieved and just needed to be taken to the next
level.”
He added: “Being an entrepreneur often means taking risks but it also means
focusing clearly on what the consumer wants, being forward thinking by
acknowledging demographic and lifestyle changes and always trying to stay
one step ahead.”
To see other video profiles and interviews with the finalists go to www.timesonline.co.uk/entrepreneurs
