Early July sees a 4-strong team of student entrepreneurs (Lucie Campbell, Hannah Plush, Ava Kind & Caden Aycliffe) from Harper Adams University and their Riff snack bar range represent the UK at the European finals of this year’s Young Enterprise finals.
International Snacks Magazine Senior Editor Joseph Clarke caught up with Co-Founder Lucie Campbell to find out more…
Lucie, can you tell us about the inspiration behind your idea and the problem you set out to solve?
Thank you so much! Honestly, it’s been an absolute whirlwind of a journey since February, going from a vague notion of an idea to having a registered business that’s primed to launch into the market. The whole inspiration started when we saw hundreds of kilos of bruised bananas piling up in our university community fridge from local retailers. We quickly realised there’s only so much banana bread one campus community can bake and that there had to be a better solution to a spiralling problem.
After digging into the data, we started to appreciate the sheer scale of perfectly good food wasted every year, coupled with the impact such waste has on the wider environment. We put our heads together and realised it wasn’t just bananas, but wonky apples, berries, cocoa husks and so much more besides that could be rescued. We wanted to combine tackling this waste with our passion for improved digestive health (gut healt) and natural, minimally-processed snacks, turning perfectly edible fruit into something truly nourishing for the body.
Why do you think finding sustainable solutions for food waste is so important, particularly for the next generation of entrepreneurs?
Finding sustainable solutions for food waste is essential because food is a finite resource. We have limited land, a growing population, and massive climate change challenges, so every single bit of food needs to be utilised to the max. Seeing a huge percentage of perfectly edible food being thrown away is simply criminal. For a new generation of entrepreneurs, tackling this issue isn’t simply a nicety, it’s a necessity.
Sourcing surplus ingredients is definitely more complicated and less straightforward than traditional supply chains, but it forces us to be both agile and innovative. It’s really about driving a major mindset shift, not just for ourselves, but for the wider public. We want to prove to people that just because a piece of fruit looks a bit wonky on the outside, it doesn’t mean it’s bad and should be abandoned.
What have been the biggest challenges in developing your business, and what have you learned from the experience of taking it from concept to a national-winning enterprise?
I’d say there’ve been two main challenges. Firstly, aligning four very different schedules, since we all come from different university courses and years. We initially tried the traditional weekly board meetings and a very formal way of communicating, but it was just too slow and clunky for us. Instead, we’ve developed a much faster, remote way of communicating to get things done quickly and efficiently, making the absolute most of the time we have available, whether that’s sharing calendars, voice notes, or hopping on quick phone calls and Teams meetings at all hours of the night to make it work and get stuff done!
The second challenge is just the reality that building a business from scratch is just plain hard. Its relentless and if we take our foot off the gas for even a second things can fall apart, Phoning up suppliers for the first time and feeling clueless, out of one’s depth isn’t a nice feeling and struggling to formulate a new recipe can be so frustrating. That said, we have come a long way in such a short time frame and to budding entrepreneurs the ‘chaos factor’ can be strangely appealing.
How does it feel to be taking your idea onto the international stage, and what are your hopes for the competition?
To be completely honest, taking our idea to the international stage feels totally surreal! We never could have predicted back in February that we’d have a business we are taking to Europe to compete in the finals. We are so excited to get that kind of exposure and to meet other like-minded young people who are also pushing boundaries and inventing new things. It really motivates us to work even harder and showcase Riff Snacks in the best light possible.
We are naturally very competitive, so we would absolutely love to bring home a win for the UK! But either way, we are 100% going to learn from the experience and use it as fuel for our next steps. The journey isn’t slowing down for a second. Next weekend, right before we fly out, we are officially manufacturing our first official Riff bars, which is incredibly exciting!
