Living Salads
Andrew Johnson was living the dream with his wife and family in Portugal until the multinational company for which he worked made him redundant.
Forced to reassess his future, he moved to Hull, reconnected with his agricultural roots and started his company, Living Salads, which sells small trays of baby salad plants to supermarkets and restaurants. “In Portugal we ate rocket straight out of the fields, but it wasn’t until we returned to England that I truly realised the difference in quality between just-picked leaves and bagged salads - the bagged leaves simply didn’t taste very fresh,” he says.
With the adverse publicity bagged salads were attracting - use of chlorine, packaging and the food miles clocked up - Johnson decided to market a salad that was still growing when it reached the supermarket shelf.
“The idea was that the salad would be growing in its tray until the moment the customer cut it and put it on to the plate, but I must admit there were some dark days wondering if it would amount to a business,” Johnson says.
The supermarkets, however, loved the idea. His problem was meeting the demand. In April 2005 Sainsbury’s came to collect its first delivery, which turned out to be twice what he had expected to supply. Johnson had to keep the lorry waiting, but by 4.30pm, having started at 6am, Living Salads had fulfilled its first order.
“We were exhausted and the planned champagne celebration was put on ice, but we learnt from the experience,” he says.
Large orders are no longer a problem. Staff numbers have risen from six to 16 and turnover has doubled year on year. With the introduction of more varieties and the opening of markets abroad, Johnson sees the trend continuing.