Focused Nutrition Ltd

Forum member Focused Nutrition Ltd is an award-winning specialist manufacturer of healthy-eating bars, including nutritionally enhanced flapjacks.

Focused Nutrition was started in 2003 by a husband and wife team, Martin and Christine Rooney, who spotted a gap in the food market for a new range of healthy-eating flapjacks. The company began by successfully developing and launching its Applejacks range. The flapjacks were immediately well received by the food industry, and can now be found in supermarkets and high street stores nationwide, as well as being sold by many national vending companies.

Product focus

By the time they started the company, Mr and Mrs Rooney already had many years of commercial experience, having successfully run both retail and specialist restaurant businesses. Mr Rooney says the founding of Focused Nutrition was a natural migration from food production in their restaurant business, but with one key difference: "We had to learn how to manufacture, as opposed to restaurant bake," he says. "The bars needed to be formulated for a long shelf-life and that meant using different ingredients, processes and packaging."

Initially, the company employed just a couple of staff, as Mr and Mrs Rooney continued to be involved in the restaurant business. But before long the restaurant was sold and Focused Nutrition was established in a new premises in Stockport. There, ‘Applejacks' products were handmade on site, using the finest ingredients including carefully selected non-genetically modified wholegrain oats, non-hydrogenated dairy-free fat, dried fruit and berries. All the flapjacks are suitable for vegetarians and some also for vegans.

After just two years of trading, the company won the title of ‘Best Newcomer' at the 2005 Food Manufacture Excellence Awards, testimony to the rigorous care taken in both its choice of ingredients and its production methods, which resulted in the highest quality of products.

The Applejacks ‘Just nice to eat' brand became established, and remains at the heart of the company's offering today. But, on the back of its success, Focused Nutrition also developed a ‘functional food' range, which includes a breakfast bar, Omega bar (which includes Omega 3 and 6) and a protein-enriched range. More recently it has introduced a ‘No Added' range of flapjacks with no added salt, wheat and dairy ingredients. And currently it is in the process of developing a ‘Fivaday' range, which it has recently trademarked.

Customer focus

"The key is to differentiate our products and then to go out and find new customers – that's always the challenge," says Mr Rooney. The company markets its products across the UK and now also has customers in Europe. Customers include several large retailers, supermarkets, high street stores, wholesalers and a growing number of distributors. Mr Rooney is always on the lookout for wholesalers, distributors and retailers who, he says, "would like to grow their business working with a customer-focused organisation such as ours".
Focused Nutrition also contract manufactures ‘own label' products for a variety of corporate customers, an area of the business that is developing strongly.

Investment focus

After a tough period in the recession, the company is back on a growth path. With seven staff and with a turnover of well over £500,000, it is expanding its Stockport site to accommodate new business. It is taking on additional warehouse space next to its existing site which, as well as facilitating a new office and reception area, will also increase the production area. The investment also allows for greater levels of finished stock to be stored on site and to provide more production flexibility.

Mr Rooney comments: "Whether retailer, wholesaler or distributor, customers want quality and service, points we have taken heed of and this is why investment in our facilities is so important.

"We have already demonstrated that the products we offer are of the highest quality. We want to build on this success by developing our facilities in order to maximise our potential as a company and provide unrivalled service within the functional and nutritional snack food market.

"Our success demonstrates what a small company can achieve with great people behind it and I'm sure we will continue to make our mark on the industry."

Focus on the Forum

Mr Rooney has been a member of the Forum of Private Business for over 20 years and speaks highly of the help the business support organisation has given him throughout his entrepreneurial career.

Now in his mid-fifties, he has a wealth of experience to draw on, but even so, he values the wider business perspective that the Forum can provide. "As a small business you tend to be a bit myopic, trying to sort out your own issues," he says. "But the Forum gives you a wider perspective and an external viewpoint. It also enables you to access more resources and expertise than you have in-house."

Over the years Mr Rooney has used a variety of the Forum's services, notably legal advice "when standing our ground against larger companies". In particular, he was grateful for the Forum's past assistance during a protracted VAT dispute with the authorities, which went all the way to a tribunal hearing – where he won.

He has wise words of advice for budding entrepreneurs: "When you start up in business you can't envisage how events will unfold or what circumstances you'll find yourself in. There will always be issues where you need to draw on more experience than you have got yourself or within your personal network. That's when it's important to have the Forum there to support you."

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