“HAVING A BRAND THAT HAS PURPOSE AND THAT PEOPLE CAN BUY INTO MAKES THEM FEEL LIKE THEY'RE GETTING SOMETHING BACK IN RETURN AS WELL. PEOPLE NEED PURPOSE, AND EVERYONE LOVES TO BE A PART OF SOMETHING. I THINK IT'S JUST A COMPLETE WIN-WIN; IT'S AMAZING - YOU GET COMPLETE SATISFACTION ON BOTH LEVELS."
Jenny came across my radar through a mutual friend, who advised that if I was compiling stories about inspiring women using their careers to “be the change,” then interviewing Jenny was a must. Going home to investigate further, I was more than impressed with what I found about Jenny online. Winner of the 2014 Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award for her business Rubies in the Rubble, Jenny is committed to reducing food waste worldwide. I was shocked to read that nearly 1/3 of the food currently produced in the world is discarded, and that almost 60% of that waste is preventable.
I admired how instead of viewing these statistics as hopeless, Jenny decided to jump in to be a part of the change. By “saving” perfectly good fruit and veg from markets that would otherwise discard them and repurposing these goods into chutneys and jams, Rubies in the Rubble aims to not only reduce food waste, but to also change the way consumers think about food. Jenny’s business model is a true example of how by changing the way we think we can change the way we act, and in turn change the world.
Jenny came across my radar through a mutual friend, who advised that if I was compiling stories about inspiring women using their careers to “be the change,” then interviewing Jenny was a must. Going home to investigate further, I was more than impressed with what I found about Jenny online. Winner of the 2014 Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award for her business Rubies in the Rubble, Jenny is committed to reducing food waste worldwide. I was shocked to read that nearly 1/3 of the food currently produced in the world is discarded, and that almost 60% of that waste is preventable.
I admired how instead of viewing these statistics as hopeless, Jenny decided to jump in to be a part of the change. By “saving” perfectly good fruit and veg from markets that would otherwise discard them and repurposing these goods into chutneys and jams, Rubies in the Rubble aims to not only reduce food waste, but to also change the way consumers think about food. Jenny’s business model is a true example of how by changing the way we think we can change the way we act, and in turn change the world.
I got my Masters in mathematics and economics, and then finished in Hong Kong. Afterwards, I ended up at a hedge fund in London. While I was working there I started researching food waste, and began to realize the implications both economically and environmentally. In the UK, the figures (this was around 2010) said that 22 billion pounds were being spent on food waste every year, and that 60% of it was avoidable! A third of our fruit and veg was getting thrown away, and this was avoidable as well. Hearing this made me want to research more … knowing the basic fact that there’s 1 billion people going to bed hungry, that we’re wasting this much and we’re worried about feeding the next generation made me want to do something that was solvable.
I wanted to approach the issue from a perspective of, “Let’s work with the system we’ve already got.” I was brought up in quite a sustainable family; I was raised on a farm on the west coast of Scotland where my parents had wind farms and there were all sorts of home-grown stuff. Mum had always made chutneys and jams from gluts in her fruit and veg garden. So when I went down to these fruit and veg markets I thought, this is just like one giant glut! I thought, let’s make a product that has a new life and can be preserved – like in the traditional way of preserving.
So, we started with chutneys and jams, and then I left my job after about three months. It sounds quite rash, but at the same time I sort of knew I didn’t want to do finance forever, that if I stayed in that job just for the pay I’d be really annoyed with myself by the time I was 40. I was working in finance more because of my degree rather than for a love of the job – I was sort of living for the weekends. I just wasn’t passionate about it; I thought, “I’ve got to do something that I actually really love.” So I left. I was 25 at the time and felt like I had nothing to lose really.
I didn’t have a plan B, and I think this actually made it easier for me. I see a lot of people do it half and half for awhile – having their 9-5 job while working on building their dream job on the side, but I think it’s actually harder because you’ve got other securities going on, so you just don’t dedicate the time to it. But when you’ve got nothing else – no backup plan – you pour everything you’ve got into it.
I had a feeling that the only fear of failing really was maybe just what people thought of you. I mean, it would be a bit embarrassing to have to admit, “Oh yeah, I tried it and it went nowhere.” But I felt that if I tried it for two years and really gave it everything, and even if it just all went to pot, all I’d lose is a bit of time and a bit of cash … but really I’d gain so much from all the experiences and skills I’d pick up along the way.
Around this same time as well, I’d been volunteering with disadvantaged women and wanted to get them back into employment. A lot of them were saying they were desperate for employment, but they were so unsure of themselves and feeling like they couldn’t get into anything that they didn’t know what to do. I wanted to create an environment where they could feel confidence and build teamwork.
So the women I was working with in this charity, who were mainly women from the street, are the women I employed to start making chutneys and jams for us. They were our first employees. We got them their health and hygiene qualifications. It was amazing, I loved it – such an amazing atmosphere to work in. Our kitchen location was at one of London’s biggest fruit and veg markets for two and a half years, and we sort of grew from there.
It’s actually really hard to measure food waste – especially food waste that could be avoidable – because it happens throughout the whole supply chain. So it’ll happen in the field, the farm, the supermarket, in the pack houses. But also in the UK, they suspect that 1/3 is being wasted in the homes, and with that you can’t improve the system other than changing people’s attitudes. So there’s really so many statistics jumping around. There’s some that I think are really blown out of proportion and others that don’t seem to represent it very well, but I’ve heard that globally 1/3 of what we produce in the world is being discarded. And a lot of that they’re saying – 60% of that in fact – is avoidable.
A lot of it could be avoided if we improved our transportation systems, our storage systems … but also if attitudes were changed as well. We’d do better to employ the attitudes of our parent’s day – as in, you wouldn’t just buy food and let it go bad. I mean we’re constantly just throwing things away. Even just the mentality of the big supermarkets where you’ve got 18 different aisles, all selling various goods. There’s such an industry, there’s so much profit in it as well … from different brands and different snack foods, almost encouraging people to eat all the time.
It would be a big change to completely eradicate food waste, but for me it mainly stems from the individual’s conceptions. If you can create a demand for wanting to care about valuing food again – eating in the seasons and eating when things are naturally in glut and not being wasteful; I think that would be a huge change.
From the beginning we really just wanted people to believe in the brand, and even though we might not be making many products, just that fact that it is from surplus will make people change the way they are thinking. We started selling to premium department stores to show that our food has nothing wrong with it. It also starts a conversation as well, and hopefully will help people learn a little bit. A lot of our work is about educating as well.
As we’re growing, we’re now in conversations with other food organizations like Action Against Hunger to see if there’s anything we can do. There are a lot of places we feel we can make more of an impact on as we grow. We’re in quite close conversations with major supermarkets in the UK, trying to change the way they think.
When I was first researching food waste, I kept reading about these three wholesale fruit and veg markets in London that run from midnight ‘til around 6 am. These are wholesale markets where there are several hundred thousand tons of fruit and veg passing through … enormous trucks come from all around the world with their own fruit and veg that then get put onto palettes to be traded out to restaurants and other places throughout the night, so that they’re fresh for the next day.
When I heard about them I thought it was amazing and had to check it out. I set my alarm for 4 am and cycled down to the market. When I got there everything was in these air hangers of bright red colors and everyone was trading – fork lift trucks were flying around with palettes of fruit and veg, and everyone was so competitive and sort of seemed to be selling the same thing … like everyone was selling tomatoes and everyone was selling oranges, it was crazy. But then just 50 or 100 meters away were palettes of things that no one wanted. I remember the first palette I saw, it was a palette of beans that had packaging from Kenya. To me they looked perfect, I couldn’t see what was wrong with them. But they were being thrown away, it was either there wasn’t the demand for them or that something was wrong with them for the shop.
And so I decided to “save them” … I put masses onto my bicycle and picked up a load of other things. As I was cycling home I started thinking about the women I was working with and volunteering with. I was just thinking about how much we discard in our society, how un-resourceful we are and how we can just afford to waste when other people go without. Even though I knew that because London bought the beans from Kenya it was good for their trade, the fact that they didn’t even make it to the shop when they got here really bothered me. In my head I thought, “this is like a rubies in the rubble situation, it’s like a diamonds in the dust.” So I don’t feel I really “came up with the name” in that way – because it was already an existing term – but I realized that term was the perfect name. Rubies in the Rubble: it’s going to represent caring for our resources and that there’s enough for all.
The ethos behind Rubies in the Rubble is about valuing what you’ve got, seeing what’s in your hand, and using it. And, the reason why we exist is that there’s enough food for everybody, yet not everybody has enough and we want to change this by just changing the way business is done from the status quo, and hopefully making a bit of a mark for that. Because I do believe that in our generation hunger just shouldn’t exist, that western countries should put less pressure on the whole global food market … that we should leave food on the market for others and also make sure that in developing countries – where they could be getting almost double their crop out of yield – they can actually get the best out of what they’ve got.
I think it’s a lot about getting into that old phrase “Waste not want not,” and that feeling of really valuing what you have and loving it; the idea that you’re never going to want because you’re happy and content with what you’ve got. So just appreciating is a big thing. I suppose that’s a big move in our generation of consumerism, with these sort of quick buys and throwing away. I love the Scandinavian/Swedish consumer, who’s so much more particular about what they buy – they buy for quality and they have it for life, and they don’t have so much junk or clutter around … they just buy wisely and they buy what they need. I also love – and think it’s just general health – to eat what’s in season and what’s naturally available in the environment as well. I think it’s sort of common sense for health reasons.
It’s funny because I found a real connection with going to the market that night and then going to my job at the hedge fund that day. There was this homeless guy in the street that I passed every day when I was always dressed very smartly on my way into work. And I always felt really bad for that guy, but at the same time I wouldn’t bend down and chat with him or put my arm around him because he smells and looks horrible; it was just that feeling of how much everyone and everything is judged by it’s exterior. I just thought, “How amazing that this person has exactly the same thoughts and worries, and falls in love and everything as everybody else does, but we treat him so differently.” So that was really part of the whole philosophy as well, about valuing and seeing the worth in something, rather than just the appearance.
A lot of people wanted me to make it a charity – they’d say, “Make it a charity, you’re working with disadvantaged people, you’re doing something about food waste!” But I was really passionate about making sustainable done right, that we wouldn’t be reliant on donations. I think this also came from my financial background. I mean, we live in a capitalist society, and really businesses and companies run our society. I think charities do amazing stuff all the time, but there are problems that exist within charities. I wanted to make clear that we were a business, and that we would be addressing these issues as our responsibility – not just as an add-on thing – but something that we build into our supply chain and that the business is really addressing throughout.
They do a report every year in the UK where they ask, “What is the purpose of this business or company?” Normally, the answer is to make profit or to make good product, but this year for the first time it was to make good in society and to change the way consumers think. I think our generation is really different from our parents as well, in that we are striving for more meaning than just financial gains. I think the financial wobble back in 2011 really shook things up as well, people realized that money can devalue overnight and that there’s more to life than money. I mean, if you spend so much time working, you should be getting behind something you really believe in.
I believe that the work/play balance must be really strong. I’m quite militant about that, I’m always the first to leave work. We’ve occasionally worked past 6 pm but hardly ever, even during some of our busiest times. I think that balance has got to be a big priority. What’s also important for me is to really have a great time with your employees … not just working to get the most out of people, but to actually get to know them and care about their well-being.
For me, the work and the feeling that I’m going towards something I actually believe in is much more valuable than the financial gain. I think people are successful if they’ve got that. The more you do for others, the more it also makes financial sense to do good things to create a sustainable business. Really, it’s a bad business move to not be sustainable, to not think in terms of the best measures environmentally as well. And the same goes for the people you employ that are running the business … you can’t employ people just for the sake of employing them, you have to take the time to see that there’s a role for everybody.
I love looking at the way business is done – it makes my day and I think it’s rewarding that whatever size business you are, it’s always just people to people. It’s all about relationships. I really learned that from my time in finance. I realized that no matter how big the company, it was all built on relationships; that as long as you were providing a product or service that had a demand, the rest came down to relationships.
The number one value is to make the best possible product we can. People might buy our product once for our back story or for whatever you’re doing, but really with food products people think with their stomach first. I wanted to make sure that we were making something that people loved anyway, that was just as compelling on the shelf as anything else.
Number two has to do with the sustainable angle, I wouldn’t be running this business if it weren’t for that. The fact that we won’t sacrifice the way we do things or the way we make our products is very important. It’s about being open and transparent about the way we do business, so people can completely believe in us and trust us as well. What we say is what we do, and everything comes back to why we’re doing it.
The third point that we used to always look at was the employment side, in the form of employing disadvantaged persons. Now that we’ve had to outsource production, I really hope that one day we can bring that angle back. We had to outsource because if we didn’t we were no longer going to be able to survive as a company. At that point we were so small and our cost overheads were so big that we just couldn’t get to a critical mass. So at the moment, it’s converted to being more about awareness; raising awareness and helping change people’s attitudes about the way they eat and the way they buy and the way they consume – essentially their attitudes to life.
I really believe that you’ll succeed in the things you’re passionate about – the thing that you get excited about, that you’re willing to spend your time on. You’ll go the extra mile because you love it and you’ve got incredible passion for it, and also because it’s something that’s on your path as well; it’s not going to go away so you should just give it a go and try it! You’ll learn so much from it. Even if it fails, it’s almost the biggest lesson that you’ll come to upcycle within that.
I absolutely love what I’ve done and I think that if it got to the point where the whole thing went flat I wouldn’t think of changing things for a second. It’s been such an exciting journey, I’ve met so many interesting people along the way and I’ve learned an incredible amount. It’s also meant so much more than any wage could have given me, doing something that I truly believe in. And if you believe that you’ve only got one crack at life, then it’s worth spending it in the right way.
Well, first of all I don’t ever think there’s going to be a “right time.” I remember people saying to me, “You’re stupid to go into it now because you should wait and earn money first,” “Carry on with this job to get some cash, some security and then go and do it,” or “You don’t know anything about what you’re doing.” But I just kept saying that I knew that I loved what the product represented, so I knew what I wanted to do.
So, there’s never really going to be a right time, and if you keep putting it off and putting it off, you’ll never actually do it. Because of all the naysayers, this fear of failure really built up in me to the point where I decided that I didn’t care if I failed, and it made me think, “Why are we all so scared about failing?” When you think of it in that way, it’s a stupid thing to ever stop you. What is the worst that can happen? Maybe you’ll lose a couple years and then you’ll carry on and do something else? That’s really not so bad.
At the beginning, it’s definitely a lot of hard work and there are no short cuts. I was holding on to part time jobs as well; I struggled for the first year and a half, I wasn’t really making any money. I moved into a tiny little flat. I had to sacrifice a lot of holidays with friends who had incomes that were rising and rising while my piddling amount of cash was falling.
So there was definitely a lot of that angle, but it was humor that helped me through. My friends used to ask how I could laugh so much because I would always make a joke of how I was running out of cash, or how this is what my life has become trying to make this chutney, or that I’ve burnt everything today. I would try to see it as a light thing, at the time it seemed almost sort of really comical. Now I look back on it and I can’t believe I used to really do that. I’d get up at 4:00 in the morning wanting to save these tomatoes that everyone was just going to let rot, thinking, “No you don’t understand, you can’t!” I knew in my head what I was passionate about and that was the driver of everything.
There were times I put deadlines on things, like if I get to this stage and this hasn’t happened, then I’m going to stop. However, I definitely broke those quite a few times! I mean, I didn’t pay my own wage for the first six months, I just carried on thinking there was always a bit more hope at the end of the tunnel. So there were definitely times of self-doubt, but I was still loving what I did and what it represented, and I think I just laughed through it really.
It reminds me of when you’re sitting at airports, and you see families and children. You see some parents who are screaming at them and getting really stressed, and then you see other parents who are enjoying their children when they are that young, and playing with them, and it all seems less stressful because they’ve slowed down to 2 mph rather than trying to rush them along. They just plod along with them. I think it’s about just having a sense of humor and saying, “Look at what I’m trying to do!” and laughing about it.
I think it’s all about not taking yourself too seriously, and realizing that failure in a sense can be achieving something as well, because you close a door on something that you’ve pushed as hard as you could. When I left the hedge fund, my old boss said one thing that I still really remember, he said, “Go for this for two years, go really hard at it, and if it doesn’t work in two years then at least you’ve learned a lot.” I believe he’s right, you’ll learn so much more if you really push yourself and go for it … and then you can either walk away from it with lots of learning or it will grow and carry on.
Personally you can’t go wrong if you’re giving back and contributing in some sort of way, and being paid to do so. I think it would be hard not to like the job. And the other side of it, from a business point of view, is that it makes financial sense as well. Having a brand that has purpose and that people can buy into makes them feel like they’re getting something back in return. People need purpose and everyone loves to be a part of something. I think it’s just a complete win-win, it’s amazing; you get complete satisfaction on both levels.
I think growing up on a farm was most useful because I saw where food came from. I saw how much work went into growing crops or a calf being born, or being out in the fields and feeding the cows in the winter. Knowing the back story behind food and knowing how seasons change everything made me value food a lot more. I remember the amount of joy I got from growing my own vegetables in the garden. I used to grow a lot of radishes and beetroot, and even if my beetroot was the tiniest, I still loved it, I was still so proud. Everything tastes so much better, because you’re just so excited that you’ve grown it. There’s so much satisfaction in that.
So in making an actual physical product, I knew that would bring a lot of satisfaction. I loved seeing something sort of birthed and growing and changing into something else. And I loved the sustainable side of it, just knowing our farm was very small, and knowing what’s behind the food and knowing you’ve done well. That was a real passion, that what we did was healthy and it was nutritious and it was seasonal; it had core values to that side.
Growing up we also had a wind turbine for electricity and things. My parents had always been interested in sustainable energy. My sister’s a geophysicist and my mother’s an artist – she’s really sort of slap-dash, all over the place. My dad left London when he was 25 with his best friend to set up a pig farm in Yorkshire. Neither of them were country boys, having always been city boys, and didn’t really know anything about pigs, but they started this pig farm and just sort of had a blast. All of their friends would come up for weekends and they loved learning about the animals and learning about how to sell them and soon they got bigger and bigger, and eventually both sold their share. That’s when my parents moved up to Scotland.
I suppose having a dad who went for something he was passionate about definitely had a bit of an influence on me. And, that my parent’s attitudes in life were that it really didn’t matter if I succeeded or failed, the feeling that I am loved just for who I am. It sounds really naft, but it’s actually a sort of key that quite a lot of people don’t have. We had such a rich life growing up, but not that much cash. They were always around and we had such a loving family. For me, family and children and people having good mentors and a support system is very important. I think that really helped. I just had this feeling of, I can go do anything and it doesn’t really matter what the outcome is … I can just give it a go and I’m free to do anything.
I think unless you’ve come up with some unbelievable invention that nobody else has, and somebody else might take it, then there’s always kind of a low barrier to entry. Like for me and what I’m doing, I’m not saying anything that’s really rocket science. So for me to be careful and cagey would just be stupid, when really I’m going to learn so much more by sharing good things.
I suppose people are always looking at their peers as their competitors, but the truth is there’s hundreds of competitors out there – people that you don’t even know, and it’s very easy for someone to come and copy your idea. If a big supermarket wanted to just make up their own Rubies in the Rubble they could do it tomorrow. And maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. Because for me the core aim is sustainability and addressing food waste, and if it gets more people doing that, then that would be amazing – we’re all on the same page.
I always think the most interesting people I know are the ones that are really interested in everything. People that just get turned on by hearing other people’s stories – they love learning and meeting new people, and hearing new experiences. I think that one reason why Rubies in the Rubble has grown so quickly in the last few years is because we chat with so many different people – from farmers to suppliers to buyers, and that’s what really makes us different. I think that’s the way you’re going to learn, that’s the way everyone’s going to grow faster in their knowledge of all sorts of things.
I also think it’s important to be open to everything, to hear other people’s opinions. You never know what might kick off from that. Recently, someone suggested we look into air dried fruit and veg – we could’ve easily blown them off and been like, “No we don’t do that, we do chutney’s,” but instead now we’re actually playing around with the concept. It’s also about paying attention to other businesses and how other people are doing it, how someone else might be distributing it compared to you and being really open to how you can work better.
I really think there’s opportunity in everything, where there’s a resource you can make a business. Once you see an opportunity in something then it’s on to communication to try to get people behind what you’re doing. If there’s no demand, then you’re never going to do any good no matter how good your heart is. And, knowing how to communicate what you’re working to do is a big part as well.
Also careful messaging is quite key. I’ve seen a lot of organizations say things like, “Oh, we’ve got to reduce the amount of energy that we use,” or “Turn your lights off,” or do this, do that. To me as a consumer this comes off as very negative. I don’t like being told what to do and I don’t like rules. Rather, I think you should phrase the message in a way that makes the customer want to participate.
I think men and women are really different in their approach to many things. Women have got a lot to give, and they represent 50% of the population. They know more than any man about what that 50% of the population want. So from that simple angle it makes sense to have women running businesses as well.
Also, most businesses are led by men, which really consciously leaves a mark on women – to see that over and over again, it’s sort of expected for a man to be at the top. So seeing women running businesses and taking charge in that way is really courageous and encouraging for other women.
Role models, for me, are key to providing for the next generation. Somebody once said about our generation – especially in the UK – that if anyone was going to tag our generation as anything we would be called the fatherless generation … meaning that there’s a lot of single parents and that we don’t have good role models. It really saddened me, because I’ve always had such good people around me and I get surprised when people do wrong against me. I’ve always been encouraged to dream and go after things, and I can see that everybody needs role models – people who give you permission to be creative, who give you a sense of belonging. And, to have role models that are actually doing amazing things as well, that you can look up to and aspire to.
When you’re young it’s what you do, you dream about your superhero. I think we need to be looking to the real life superheroes out there who are doing amazing stuff, things that people can aspire to and messages they can really learn from. Like when you look at the Twitter following of say Justin Beiber or something, imagine if he was constantly posting tweets about things that would really change the world. Imagine how much this could influence all his followers. It would really be changing the next generation. So yes, I think role models are key.
I suppose you’re the only one really putting the pressure on how fast your business grows. So you have to be realistic about what works for you. Realize when you need help as well, realize you’re not the only person who can do something, that other people are very capable as well. Getting the right team around you is really important.
But, at the same time, realize what you’re good at and make that a priority. And, I think realizing what you get your energy from is important as well. Like in your down time, to be able to turn off completely instead of trying to do things half-heartedly. You have your down time and you have your proper, “Let’s make a to-do list and do it,” time.
Rubies in the Rubble is a brand that champions change, it’s centered around the fact that there’s enough food to feed and yet people are going without. And so whatever products that we make and whatever platforms that we use, we will aid in addressing this – in reducing that food gap. We’re looking into new products at the moment, and thinking of going into a lot more fresh things like soups and juices. We’ve been linking up with other companies as well, who work with large amounts of fruit and veg and who share similar values.
You have to look at what you’re good at, where you can outsource and where you can’t. As we grow as a company we want to be an umbrella brand of products – almost like a license brand – that people will recognize and when they see it they will know what we stand for. We want to remain strong on our values and not budge in that direction, but still be able to partner with many different people to make the products and put the brand under, and carry the message and grow together.
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- You’ve had an unusual background, with a recent article describing you as “The high-flying banker who gave it all up to turn throwaway veg into posh pickles …” Quite a description! Can you talk a bit about your personal story and how you came to be where you are today?
I got my Masters in mathematics and economics, and then finished in Hong Kong. Afterwards, I ended up at a hedge fund in London. While I was working there I started researching food waste, and began to realize the implications both economically and environmentally. In the UK, the figures (this was around 2010) said that 22 billion pounds were being spent on food waste every year, and that 60% of it was avoidable! A third of our fruit and veg was getting thrown away, and this was avoidable as well. Hearing this made me want to research more … knowing the basic fact that there’s 1 billion people going to bed hungry, that we’re wasting this much and we’re worried about feeding the next generation made me want to do something that was solvable.
I wanted to approach the issue from a perspective of, “Let’s work with the system we’ve already got.” I was brought up in quite a sustainable family; I was raised on a farm on the west coast of Scotland where my parents had wind farms and there were all sorts of home-grown stuff. Mum had always made chutneys and jams from gluts in her fruit and veg garden. So when I went down to these fruit and veg markets I thought, this is just like one giant glut! I thought, let’s make a product that has a new life and can be preserved – like in the traditional way of preserving.
So, we started with chutneys and jams, and then I left my job after about three months. It sounds quite rash, but at the same time I sort of knew I didn’t want to do finance forever, that if I stayed in that job just for the pay I’d be really annoyed with myself by the time I was 40. I was working in finance more because of my degree rather than for a love of the job – I was sort of living for the weekends. I just wasn’t passionate about it; I thought, “I’ve got to do something that I actually really love.” So I left. I was 25 at the time and felt like I had nothing to lose really.
I didn’t have a plan B, and I think this actually made it easier for me. I see a lot of people do it half and half for awhile – having their 9-5 job while working on building their dream job on the side, but I think it’s actually harder because you’ve got other securities going on, so you just don’t dedicate the time to it. But when you’ve got nothing else – no backup plan – you pour everything you’ve got into it.
I had a feeling that the only fear of failing really was maybe just what people thought of you. I mean, it would be a bit embarrassing to have to admit, “Oh yeah, I tried it and it went nowhere.” But I felt that if I tried it for two years and really gave it everything, and even if it just all went to pot, all I’d lose is a bit of time and a bit of cash … but really I’d gain so much from all the experiences and skills I’d pick up along the way.
Around this same time as well, I’d been volunteering with disadvantaged women and wanted to get them back into employment. A lot of them were saying they were desperate for employment, but they were so unsure of themselves and feeling like they couldn’t get into anything that they didn’t know what to do. I wanted to create an environment where they could feel confidence and build teamwork.
So the women I was working with in this charity, who were mainly women from the street, are the women I employed to start making chutneys and jams for us. They were our first employees. We got them their health and hygiene qualifications. It was amazing, I loved it – such an amazing atmosphere to work in. Our kitchen location was at one of London’s biggest fruit and veg markets for two and a half years, and we sort of grew from there.
- Many people aren’t familiar with the vast amount of food waste in western countries. Can you elaborate on the statistics and how Rubies in the Rubble is aimed at making a dent in this number?
It’s actually really hard to measure food waste – especially food waste that could be avoidable – because it happens throughout the whole supply chain. So it’ll happen in the field, the farm, the supermarket, in the pack houses. But also in the UK, they suspect that 1/3 is being wasted in the homes, and with that you can’t improve the system other than changing people’s attitudes. So there’s really so many statistics jumping around. There’s some that I think are really blown out of proportion and others that don’t seem to represent it very well, but I’ve heard that globally 1/3 of what we produce in the world is being discarded. And a lot of that they’re saying – 60% of that in fact – is avoidable.
A lot of it could be avoided if we improved our transportation systems, our storage systems … but also if attitudes were changed as well. We’d do better to employ the attitudes of our parent’s day – as in, you wouldn’t just buy food and let it go bad. I mean we’re constantly just throwing things away. Even just the mentality of the big supermarkets where you’ve got 18 different aisles, all selling various goods. There’s such an industry, there’s so much profit in it as well … from different brands and different snack foods, almost encouraging people to eat all the time.
It would be a big change to completely eradicate food waste, but for me it mainly stems from the individual’s conceptions. If you can create a demand for wanting to care about valuing food again – eating in the seasons and eating when things are naturally in glut and not being wasteful; I think that would be a huge change.
From the beginning we really just wanted people to believe in the brand, and even though we might not be making many products, just that fact that it is from surplus will make people change the way they are thinking. We started selling to premium department stores to show that our food has nothing wrong with it. It also starts a conversation as well, and hopefully will help people learn a little bit. A lot of our work is about educating as well.
As we’re growing, we’re now in conversations with other food organizations like Action Against Hunger to see if there’s anything we can do. There are a lot of places we feel we can make more of an impact on as we grow. We’re in quite close conversations with major supermarkets in the UK, trying to change the way they think.
- How did you come up with the name Rubies in the Rubble, and what is the philosophy behind it?
When I was first researching food waste, I kept reading about these three wholesale fruit and veg markets in London that run from midnight ‘til around 6 am. These are wholesale markets where there are several hundred thousand tons of fruit and veg passing through … enormous trucks come from all around the world with their own fruit and veg that then get put onto palettes to be traded out to restaurants and other places throughout the night, so that they’re fresh for the next day.
When I heard about them I thought it was amazing and had to check it out. I set my alarm for 4 am and cycled down to the market. When I got there everything was in these air hangers of bright red colors and everyone was trading – fork lift trucks were flying around with palettes of fruit and veg, and everyone was so competitive and sort of seemed to be selling the same thing … like everyone was selling tomatoes and everyone was selling oranges, it was crazy. But then just 50 or 100 meters away were palettes of things that no one wanted. I remember the first palette I saw, it was a palette of beans that had packaging from Kenya. To me they looked perfect, I couldn’t see what was wrong with them. But they were being thrown away, it was either there wasn’t the demand for them or that something was wrong with them for the shop.
And so I decided to “save them” … I put masses onto my bicycle and picked up a load of other things. As I was cycling home I started thinking about the women I was working with and volunteering with. I was just thinking about how much we discard in our society, how un-resourceful we are and how we can just afford to waste when other people go without. Even though I knew that because London bought the beans from Kenya it was good for their trade, the fact that they didn’t even make it to the shop when they got here really bothered me. In my head I thought, “this is like a rubies in the rubble situation, it’s like a diamonds in the dust.” So I don’t feel I really “came up with the name” in that way – because it was already an existing term – but I realized that term was the perfect name. Rubies in the Rubble: it’s going to represent caring for our resources and that there’s enough for all.
The ethos behind Rubies in the Rubble is about valuing what you’ve got, seeing what’s in your hand, and using it. And, the reason why we exist is that there’s enough food for everybody, yet not everybody has enough and we want to change this by just changing the way business is done from the status quo, and hopefully making a bit of a mark for that. Because I do believe that in our generation hunger just shouldn’t exist, that western countries should put less pressure on the whole global food market … that we should leave food on the market for others and also make sure that in developing countries – where they could be getting almost double their crop out of yield – they can actually get the best out of what they’ve got.
- What has been your experience in applying this philosophy to not only business, but life in general? From your experience, what are the benefits we can all gain from “not rejecting that wonky carrot?”
I think it’s a lot about getting into that old phrase “Waste not want not,” and that feeling of really valuing what you have and loving it; the idea that you’re never going to want because you’re happy and content with what you’ve got. So just appreciating is a big thing. I suppose that’s a big move in our generation of consumerism, with these sort of quick buys and throwing away. I love the Scandinavian/Swedish consumer, who’s so much more particular about what they buy – they buy for quality and they have it for life, and they don’t have so much junk or clutter around … they just buy wisely and they buy what they need. I also love – and think it’s just general health – to eat what’s in season and what’s naturally available in the environment as well. I think it’s sort of common sense for health reasons.
It’s funny because I found a real connection with going to the market that night and then going to my job at the hedge fund that day. There was this homeless guy in the street that I passed every day when I was always dressed very smartly on my way into work. And I always felt really bad for that guy, but at the same time I wouldn’t bend down and chat with him or put my arm around him because he smells and looks horrible; it was just that feeling of how much everyone and everything is judged by it’s exterior. I just thought, “How amazing that this person has exactly the same thoughts and worries, and falls in love and everything as everybody else does, but we treat him so differently.” So that was really part of the whole philosophy as well, about valuing and seeing the worth in something, rather than just the appearance.
- You’ve said that when starting Rubies in the Rubble, you specifically chose to create a business over a charity. Can you elaborate on why you made this choice and how you believe businesses can lead the way forward in addressing world issues?
A lot of people wanted me to make it a charity – they’d say, “Make it a charity, you’re working with disadvantaged people, you’re doing something about food waste!” But I was really passionate about making sustainable done right, that we wouldn’t be reliant on donations. I think this also came from my financial background. I mean, we live in a capitalist society, and really businesses and companies run our society. I think charities do amazing stuff all the time, but there are problems that exist within charities. I wanted to make clear that we were a business, and that we would be addressing these issues as our responsibility – not just as an add-on thing – but something that we build into our supply chain and that the business is really addressing throughout.
They do a report every year in the UK where they ask, “What is the purpose of this business or company?” Normally, the answer is to make profit or to make good product, but this year for the first time it was to make good in society and to change the way consumers think. I think our generation is really different from our parents as well, in that we are striving for more meaning than just financial gains. I think the financial wobble back in 2011 really shook things up as well, people realized that money can devalue overnight and that there’s more to life than money. I mean, if you spend so much time working, you should be getting behind something you really believe in.
- Can you share your attitude on work and what you believe it should provide beyond a monetary means of survival?
I believe that the work/play balance must be really strong. I’m quite militant about that, I’m always the first to leave work. We’ve occasionally worked past 6 pm but hardly ever, even during some of our busiest times. I think that balance has got to be a big priority. What’s also important for me is to really have a great time with your employees … not just working to get the most out of people, but to actually get to know them and care about their well-being.
For me, the work and the feeling that I’m going towards something I actually believe in is much more valuable than the financial gain. I think people are successful if they’ve got that. The more you do for others, the more it also makes financial sense to do good things to create a sustainable business. Really, it’s a bad business move to not be sustainable, to not think in terms of the best measures environmentally as well. And the same goes for the people you employ that are running the business … you can’t employ people just for the sake of employing them, you have to take the time to see that there’s a role for everybody.
I love looking at the way business is done – it makes my day and I think it’s rewarding that whatever size business you are, it’s always just people to people. It’s all about relationships. I really learned that from my time in finance. I realized that no matter how big the company, it was all built on relationships; that as long as you were providing a product or service that had a demand, the rest came down to relationships.
- You’ve mentioned that Rubies in the Rubble was created based on three core values. Can you describe what these are and how any business can benefit from applying them?
The number one value is to make the best possible product we can. People might buy our product once for our back story or for whatever you’re doing, but really with food products people think with their stomach first. I wanted to make sure that we were making something that people loved anyway, that was just as compelling on the shelf as anything else.
Number two has to do with the sustainable angle, I wouldn’t be running this business if it weren’t for that. The fact that we won’t sacrifice the way we do things or the way we make our products is very important. It’s about being open and transparent about the way we do business, so people can completely believe in us and trust us as well. What we say is what we do, and everything comes back to why we’re doing it.
The third point that we used to always look at was the employment side, in the form of employing disadvantaged persons. Now that we’ve had to outsource production, I really hope that one day we can bring that angle back. We had to outsource because if we didn’t we were no longer going to be able to survive as a company. At that point we were so small and our cost overheads were so big that we just couldn’t get to a critical mass. So at the moment, it’s converted to being more about awareness; raising awareness and helping change people’s attitudes about the way they eat and the way they buy and the way they consume – essentially their attitudes to life.
- It’s clear that your jump from hedge fund trader to small business entrepreneur was a leap of passion. What can you tell other women about the importance of pursuing your passion?
I really believe that you’ll succeed in the things you’re passionate about – the thing that you get excited about, that you’re willing to spend your time on. You’ll go the extra mile because you love it and you’ve got incredible passion for it, and also because it’s something that’s on your path as well; it’s not going to go away so you should just give it a go and try it! You’ll learn so much from it. Even if it fails, it’s almost the biggest lesson that you’ll come to upcycle within that.
I absolutely love what I’ve done and I think that if it got to the point where the whole thing went flat I wouldn’t think of changing things for a second. It’s been such an exciting journey, I’ve met so many interesting people along the way and I’ve learned an incredible amount. It’s also meant so much more than any wage could have given me, doing something that I truly believe in. And if you believe that you’ve only got one crack at life, then it’s worth spending it in the right way.
- Oftentimes we can hold ourselves back with fear of failure. What is your advice on how to face this fear and take that leap of faith?
Well, first of all I don’t ever think there’s going to be a “right time.” I remember people saying to me, “You’re stupid to go into it now because you should wait and earn money first,” “Carry on with this job to get some cash, some security and then go and do it,” or “You don’t know anything about what you’re doing.” But I just kept saying that I knew that I loved what the product represented, so I knew what I wanted to do.
So, there’s never really going to be a right time, and if you keep putting it off and putting it off, you’ll never actually do it. Because of all the naysayers, this fear of failure really built up in me to the point where I decided that I didn’t care if I failed, and it made me think, “Why are we all so scared about failing?” When you think of it in that way, it’s a stupid thing to ever stop you. What is the worst that can happen? Maybe you’ll lose a couple years and then you’ll carry on and do something else? That’s really not so bad.
- What kind of personal challenges or obstacles have you had to overcome since starting Rubies in the Rubble? What tips can you give to other women about working through challenges?
At the beginning, it’s definitely a lot of hard work and there are no short cuts. I was holding on to part time jobs as well; I struggled for the first year and a half, I wasn’t really making any money. I moved into a tiny little flat. I had to sacrifice a lot of holidays with friends who had incomes that were rising and rising while my piddling amount of cash was falling.
So there was definitely a lot of that angle, but it was humor that helped me through. My friends used to ask how I could laugh so much because I would always make a joke of how I was running out of cash, or how this is what my life has become trying to make this chutney, or that I’ve burnt everything today. I would try to see it as a light thing, at the time it seemed almost sort of really comical. Now I look back on it and I can’t believe I used to really do that. I’d get up at 4:00 in the morning wanting to save these tomatoes that everyone was just going to let rot, thinking, “No you don’t understand, you can’t!” I knew in my head what I was passionate about and that was the driver of everything.
There were times I put deadlines on things, like if I get to this stage and this hasn’t happened, then I’m going to stop. However, I definitely broke those quite a few times! I mean, I didn’t pay my own wage for the first six months, I just carried on thinking there was always a bit more hope at the end of the tunnel. So there were definitely times of self-doubt, but I was still loving what I did and what it represented, and I think I just laughed through it really.
It reminds me of when you’re sitting at airports, and you see families and children. You see some parents who are screaming at them and getting really stressed, and then you see other parents who are enjoying their children when they are that young, and playing with them, and it all seems less stressful because they’ve slowed down to 2 mph rather than trying to rush them along. They just plod along with them. I think it’s about just having a sense of humor and saying, “Look at what I’m trying to do!” and laughing about it.
I think it’s all about not taking yourself too seriously, and realizing that failure in a sense can be achieving something as well, because you close a door on something that you’ve pushed as hard as you could. When I left the hedge fund, my old boss said one thing that I still really remember, he said, “Go for this for two years, go really hard at it, and if it doesn’t work in two years then at least you’ve learned a lot.” I believe he’s right, you’ll learn so much more if you really push yourself and go for it … and then you can either walk away from it with lots of learning or it will grow and carry on.
- Your business is an example of the win-win situation that can occur by helping others. By being of service, you are also helping yourself and growing a business. What can you tell other women about the benefits of giving back, both on a business level and in relation to personal happiness and fulfillment?
Personally you can’t go wrong if you’re giving back and contributing in some sort of way, and being paid to do so. I think it would be hard not to like the job. And the other side of it, from a business point of view, is that it makes financial sense as well. Having a brand that has purpose and that people can buy into makes them feel like they’re getting something back in return. People need purpose and everyone loves to be a part of something. I think it’s just a complete win-win, it’s amazing; you get complete satisfaction on both levels.
- How has your experience of growing up on a farm affected the business choices you make today and the moral viewpoints you stand by?
I think growing up on a farm was most useful because I saw where food came from. I saw how much work went into growing crops or a calf being born, or being out in the fields and feeding the cows in the winter. Knowing the back story behind food and knowing how seasons change everything made me value food a lot more. I remember the amount of joy I got from growing my own vegetables in the garden. I used to grow a lot of radishes and beetroot, and even if my beetroot was the tiniest, I still loved it, I was still so proud. Everything tastes so much better, because you’re just so excited that you’ve grown it. There’s so much satisfaction in that.
So in making an actual physical product, I knew that would bring a lot of satisfaction. I loved seeing something sort of birthed and growing and changing into something else. And I loved the sustainable side of it, just knowing our farm was very small, and knowing what’s behind the food and knowing you’ve done well. That was a real passion, that what we did was healthy and it was nutritious and it was seasonal; it had core values to that side.
Growing up we also had a wind turbine for electricity and things. My parents had always been interested in sustainable energy. My sister’s a geophysicist and my mother’s an artist – she’s really sort of slap-dash, all over the place. My dad left London when he was 25 with his best friend to set up a pig farm in Yorkshire. Neither of them were country boys, having always been city boys, and didn’t really know anything about pigs, but they started this pig farm and just sort of had a blast. All of their friends would come up for weekends and they loved learning about the animals and learning about how to sell them and soon they got bigger and bigger, and eventually both sold their share. That’s when my parents moved up to Scotland.
I suppose having a dad who went for something he was passionate about definitely had a bit of an influence on me. And, that my parent’s attitudes in life were that it really didn’t matter if I succeeded or failed, the feeling that I am loved just for who I am. It sounds really naft, but it’s actually a sort of key that quite a lot of people don’t have. We had such a rich life growing up, but not that much cash. They were always around and we had such a loving family. For me, family and children and people having good mentors and a support system is very important. I think that really helped. I just had this feeling of, I can go do anything and it doesn’t really matter what the outcome is … I can just give it a go and I’m free to do anything.
- You’ve mentioned “sharing your ideas” as one of the keys to success. However, many women think of sharing in business with negative connotations. Can you talk about your positive experiences with sharing and why you encourage it?
I think unless you’ve come up with some unbelievable invention that nobody else has, and somebody else might take it, then there’s always kind of a low barrier to entry. Like for me and what I’m doing, I’m not saying anything that’s really rocket science. So for me to be careful and cagey would just be stupid, when really I’m going to learn so much more by sharing good things.
I suppose people are always looking at their peers as their competitors, but the truth is there’s hundreds of competitors out there – people that you don’t even know, and it’s very easy for someone to come and copy your idea. If a big supermarket wanted to just make up their own Rubies in the Rubble they could do it tomorrow. And maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. Because for me the core aim is sustainability and addressing food waste, and if it gets more people doing that, then that would be amazing – we’re all on the same page.
- What are your thoughts on the importance of an entrepreneurial spirit and thinking outside the box? How can other women follow your lead to create a career that is needed instead of trying to fit into a particular path or archetype?
I always think the most interesting people I know are the ones that are really interested in everything. People that just get turned on by hearing other people’s stories – they love learning and meeting new people, and hearing new experiences. I think that one reason why Rubies in the Rubble has grown so quickly in the last few years is because we chat with so many different people – from farmers to suppliers to buyers, and that’s what really makes us different. I think that’s the way you’re going to learn, that’s the way everyone’s going to grow faster in their knowledge of all sorts of things.
I also think it’s important to be open to everything, to hear other people’s opinions. You never know what might kick off from that. Recently, someone suggested we look into air dried fruit and veg – we could’ve easily blown them off and been like, “No we don’t do that, we do chutney’s,” but instead now we’re actually playing around with the concept. It’s also about paying attention to other businesses and how other people are doing it, how someone else might be distributing it compared to you and being really open to how you can work better.
- You’re part of a shift in the way we look at business. It is clear in this day and age that businesses have a huge opportunity and role to play in addressing the many world issues at hand. What advice do you have to other women about how to use your career to “be the change you wish to see in the world?”
I really think there’s opportunity in everything, where there’s a resource you can make a business. Once you see an opportunity in something then it’s on to communication to try to get people behind what you’re doing. If there’s no demand, then you’re never going to do any good no matter how good your heart is. And, knowing how to communicate what you’re working to do is a big part as well.
Also careful messaging is quite key. I’ve seen a lot of organizations say things like, “Oh, we’ve got to reduce the amount of energy that we use,” or “Turn your lights off,” or do this, do that. To me as a consumer this comes off as very negative. I don’t like being told what to do and I don’t like rules. Rather, I think you should phrase the message in a way that makes the customer want to participate.
- Statistically, there are still a lot fewer women than men starting and running businesses. As an example of the minority, what are your thoughts on the benefits businesses can gain from having more female leaders? From your experience, what unique qualities do women bring to the table?
I think men and women are really different in their approach to many things. Women have got a lot to give, and they represent 50% of the population. They know more than any man about what that 50% of the population want. So from that simple angle it makes sense to have women running businesses as well.
Also, most businesses are led by men, which really consciously leaves a mark on women – to see that over and over again, it’s sort of expected for a man to be at the top. So seeing women running businesses and taking charge in that way is really courageous and encouraging for other women.
- In 2014, you won The Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award, given to socially conscious entrepreneurs. Many women now see you as a role model. What are your thoughts on the importance of role models in both life and business?
Role models, for me, are key to providing for the next generation. Somebody once said about our generation – especially in the UK – that if anyone was going to tag our generation as anything we would be called the fatherless generation … meaning that there’s a lot of single parents and that we don’t have good role models. It really saddened me, because I’ve always had such good people around me and I get surprised when people do wrong against me. I’ve always been encouraged to dream and go after things, and I can see that everybody needs role models – people who give you permission to be creative, who give you a sense of belonging. And, to have role models that are actually doing amazing things as well, that you can look up to and aspire to.
When you’re young it’s what you do, you dream about your superhero. I think we need to be looking to the real life superheroes out there who are doing amazing stuff, things that people can aspire to and messages they can really learn from. Like when you look at the Twitter following of say Justin Beiber or something, imagine if he was constantly posting tweets about things that would really change the world. Imagine how much this could influence all his followers. It would really be changing the next generation. So yes, I think role models are key.
- Many women struggle with work/life balance. As a business owner and a woman in high demand, how do you create balance in your own life? What tips can you offer to other women who are “trying to do it all?”
I suppose you’re the only one really putting the pressure on how fast your business grows. So you have to be realistic about what works for you. Realize when you need help as well, realize you’re not the only person who can do something, that other people are very capable as well. Getting the right team around you is really important.
But, at the same time, realize what you’re good at and make that a priority. And, I think realizing what you get your energy from is important as well. Like in your down time, to be able to turn off completely instead of trying to do things half-heartedly. You have your down time and you have your proper, “Let’s make a to-do list and do it,” time.
- What does the evolution of Rubies in the Rubble look like? Where do you see yourself going from here?
Rubies in the Rubble is a brand that champions change, it’s centered around the fact that there’s enough food to feed and yet people are going without. And so whatever products that we make and whatever platforms that we use, we will aid in addressing this – in reducing that food gap. We’re looking into new products at the moment, and thinking of going into a lot more fresh things like soups and juices. We’ve been linking up with other companies as well, who work with large amounts of fruit and veg and who share similar values.
You have to look at what you’re good at, where you can outsource and where you can’t. As we grow as a company we want to be an umbrella brand of products – almost like a license brand – that people will recognize and when they see it they will know what we stand for. We want to remain strong on our values and not budge in that direction, but still be able to partner with many different people to make the products and put the brand under, and carry the message and grow together.
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