Big J’s Kitchen Founder Talks Sauces & Selfridges – Interview

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Back in 2013 we interviewed Big J the founder of UK Sauce brand Big J’s Kitchen for our 2nd issue of our print magazine, where he talked about starting his brand and wanting it to become a success. Two years later and the UK startup has moved from Big J’s Kitchen to being bottled in a factory, distributed by Hider Fine Foods and stocked in Delicatessens, butchers and now top department store Selfridges. We caught up with Big J to talk about this amazing whirlwind journey.

Your brand has grown massively, talk to us about the highlights so far

We had the Metro Newspaper competition. It was a city wide competition in which over a thousand people entered and we came in the top 20, which led them to do a special article on us in the Metro newspaper.

There was a limited addition gold bottle that we did for the Olympics. Puma loved it and snapped us up. We got to stay in the Olympic yard with the Puma lot. Then things started rocketing.

Linked up with Sarah Willingham, the new dragon on Dragon’s Den and we did a few Malibu and Wray & Nephew parties which led to us taking over the Goodge Street, Oxford Circus and Shaftsbury Avenue Kitchens of the London Cocktail Club, which is owned by Raymond Blanc, JJ Goodman and Sarah Willingham, with young people from the Prince’s Trust

We then went back to the product and have gone into manufacturing. Now we’re hitting the shelves in Selfridge’s.

How did you and Sarah Willingham start working together?

I was sitting in my house watching a program called Cooks to Market. It’s like a crossover of Dragon’s Den and The Apprentice concerning food. Contestants go up against each other and get to pitch to four people at the end, one of which was Sarah Willingham. So I searched her name and shot her an email and surprisingly she replied. At first I thought it was spam. We spoke and she said she liked the Big J brand and from there I went over to her cocktail club and we talked things over and the rest is history. We went back there, had a meeting that Wednesday and started doing parties by Friday. I really like working with them. They embrace the street culture and they put us in a good position. JJ was cool. We had the menus popping off up there with the Big J products on the Big J menu.

What did that partnership do for your brand?

It did a lot. It told people we are here to play ball now and that’s very important for us. A lot of the time, people think you’re just a man with a Dutch Pot and saucer. If I look at the game now, the gimmick is to have trucker hats and tattoos on your arm. We don’t have any of that. If you don’t fall into line, people won’t take you seriously. Pulling a move like that makes you better respected. Raymond Blanc is an international chef and when they see him allowing you to put your name to it, they know you’re here to stay. I got to do a few food parties for a few PR companies in influential areas so that people knew Big J wasn’t a joke. It also gave me an extra avenue, an extra way to flip the cash and allow the business to grow.

When did you realise you had a strong business plan that could impact on the food market. How did that feel?

Last week! I thought to myself “hang on, I’m going into Selfridges’. I dropped off my stock there and everything, you’re always expecting something to go wrong right at the last moment, but when I saw my things at the depo I still couldn’t believe it like I’m doing my thing.

I was in the Selfridges main offices the other day to meet potential buyers and I walked in and they all started going crazy. I was wondering who the big deal was but then I looked around and they were all looking at me.

It’s mad when I see people going crazy over the sauce because I remember when I was scraping the pans outside and cutting my hands due to cleaning.

The Caribbean food market is big in the UK, why do you think UK consumers have taken to jerk sauce and hot pepper sauce so well?

I think because everyone wants more diversity on their plate now, something more fun. People are travelling around the world and are open-minded, trying different foods, tasting different things, the basic way of eating has gone now, food has become cool it was pretty boring to our world but now it seems to hold status.

Just look at how people Instagram their food now. Food has opened up a whole new culture for us. With the Jerk sauce and Hot pepper sauce they are super convenient for curious consumers, Since you’re not from my culture, you may not know where to get certain ingredients from, my product does all the running around for you as I’ve put it all in one place. All you have to do is pour it. Before people may not have knew about it and so they didn’t want it, but now that it’s accessible, now they can grab it.

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How welcoming have your peers and competitors been?

Competitors know I’m next so they aren’t too welcoming because you’re taking their customers, however the industry as a whole has been very welcoming., many people have called the brand a breath of fresh air. One of my biggest customers is Hider Fine Foods, one of the biggest wholesalers in the UK, they’ve been very supportive of the brand.

How long did it take to get an investment deal and what did this add to your business.

I turned down four offers of investment because all they offered was money, money comes and goes easily, what I needed was the right team and some experts behind me. Experts who know things I don’t know and teach me so I can go to the next level, If I start with £100,000 and no skills, all I’m gonna do is waste it. It took me two years to find the right investors and the way I found that was going through the Metro paper. My brother had a crazy idea to do a photoshoot in the middle of the road and I was down. We “obtained” a couple of street signs and created a fake diversion and took some photos. I think that’s what really made them take interest. Before we even knew we were shortlisted for their competition, they did an article on us. When that went through, a business partner saw it and invited me to dinner. I went and sat around a table with some very influential people, one of them was in involved with Elle’s Kitchen and they sold the company for around £40m, I was like “damn, these guys are real ball players.”.

That’s why I needed the right team and investors so that we could all be on the same page in order to match our drive with their skills.

How important is your community to you and how do you help it to grow?

It’s everything to us. That’s what we’re about. It’s not just about the people in my area, it’s anyone who goes what we go through. Whether you’re in Tooting or Scotland it doesn’t matter. We’re all going through the same struggles. Anyone’s aim who is on road is to get off road. We just want to make this place a better community. Sometimes we get caught up and sometimes things go wrong. Money doesn’t equal success in my eyes; the success is when a youth comes through and is like ‘Rah, I can actually do this.’ If we can inspire them to take things to the next level that would be great. Big dreams are great, but it’s all about being realistic with it. For you to save your community you have to save your house first. If everyone is taking care of their own house then the streets would be taken care of. That’s how we’ve got to tackle it. It starts at home. When the community sees us doing the right thing, it can inspire others.

How do you intend to help budding entrepreneurs and youths become their own bosses?

One big thing about Jay’s is who we are and where we come from, If we can build ourselves correctly and teach the youth to do what we did, rather than teach them to do what nobody did. We always say “don’t be like us, don’t do what we do.” Maybe it’s time we checked ourselves and did the correct things so that we can go to the youths and say ‘Be like us.’ Our project is all about ‘each-one-teach-one’ really. If we build our business and structures it will be natural to teach next young ones in charge.

All of our profits go back to the OR? Project, which stands for “On-Road/Off-Road”. The project team is myself and a group of other mentors that work with a certain amount of young people each year, we take on people who are young offenders or are at risk of offending and we work alongside charities in the community. Asp part of the project we go through a quick program with them and they sit with a mentor for a couple of hours. We see what their goals are and we set targets over a six-month period, at the end, we do a seminar and the ones who are successful, we do things to help them get on their way for their business.

What 3 qualities do you have to possess to be an entrepreneur?

Ability, Motivation and Confidence, you have to have the ability to make things happen, the motivation to still grind when things are not working and the confidence to believe in yourself and your idea. If you do not believe in yourself, do not expect anyone else to. I’ve learnt that things don’t happen overnight, find your motivation wherever you need to find it, If I feel myself slipping, give me one hour with my daughter and I guarantee I’ll be right back on it, Find what suits you and go forth with it.

You’ve just announced that your brand is dealing with distribution company Hider Foods, shortly after you announced your range will be stocked in all Selfridge’s stores in England, was this a natural progression for your brand or were you given this advice by your peers?

It’s always been a natural progression. Everything I have done is strategic. If I hadn’t moved as early as I did, I may have hit other major stores. But everything happens for a reason. We are where we are and I’m happy. We’ve started off in butchers. All the other jerk sauce rivals are of a much lower quality than our brand, I didn’t want to go too high in price but what we do is affordable quality.

The natural progression after being in Allen’s of Mayfair, and Moens & Sons etc, where top chefs go shopping, was always to go into a major retailer’s. Selfridge’s is very on trend and right now Jerk sauce is a trend. It was always part of the strategy to hit that calibre of store. The next progression is major supermarkets.

 

Who in the business world do you respect and take notes from?

This may surprise you, but the businessman I look up to the most is Master P, the way he came up and the way he took himself to the next level, the way he showed everyone that you can do anything you want is crazy. One day I heard that he had his own phone line coming out I was like ‘this guy is something else.’ If he can do it why can’t I?

What is next for Big J?

First things first we’re gonna kill the Selfridge’s shelves, whilst doing this we will start to bring more young people through and help them fulfil their dreams. And ultimately we’re going to make the jerk sauce become a normal table sauce in households and restaurants and we’re going to kill the game. 

To keep up with the latest news from Big J’s Kitchen follow the brand on Instagram @Bigjskitchen and check out their website to buy their dope sauces here.

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