Passion into profit
1) Harry Cragoe first tried a fruit smoothie in California in the early 1990s. He had no idea then that he was on the road to corporate success. Now he heads a multimillion-pound company — and it's all because of his passion for healthy eating.
2) “When I arrived in Los Angeles, I rented an apartment near the beach,” he remembers. “I was very English, very white and overweight. Everyone was focused on looking good and being healthy. There were juice bars that sold drinks called smoothies and I loved them.”
3) When he returned to Britain, he found they weren't available. “All you could find were cartons of apple or orange juice. I could see there was a real opportunity.”
4) Cragoe sold his flat, car and investments and flew back to California. He returned with a cool box packed with frozen drinks and persuaded a friend, Patrick Folkes, to help him import and sell them.
5) They founded PJ Smoothies in 1994. Initially, the firm imported frozen smoothies from America, but the business grew quickly and they didn't have the stock to meet demand. “Up to then, we just imported the finished product,” Cragoe says. “If a store ordered 200 bottles, we began defrosting.”
6) In 1996 Cragoe decided to set up production in Britain. He found a factory site in Nottingham, equipped it and began production. Since then, PJ Smoothies has gone from strength to strength. The company is now Britain's market leader in the fresh drinks sector, controlling just under 50% of the market. Cragoe sells more than 250,000 drinks a week in summer to big supermarkets.
7) There have been problems along the way. Cragoe lost 163;30,000 when his distributor went bankrupt, leaving him with hundreds of boxes of juice to distribute. But he has never lost confidence in his concept.
8) “Most of all, you’ve got to have fun,” he says. “You must feel really passionate about what you’re doing”.