Ros Heathcote founded Borough Broth in 2015 with no food industry background, no manufacturing experience and no contacts - just a gut health problem, a systems-thinking brain, and a butcher who was paying to throw his bones away. Within a year, she had a Selfridges listing. Today Borough Broth is stocked in Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Ocado, Whole Foods, Planet Organic, Abel & Cole and more, and has just completed a raise with Piper Private Equity.
This is a candid conversation about what a decade of slow, deliberate building actually looks like, including the moment when it didn't go to plan and Ros felt like "jumping off a building". Listen to find out:
- Why Ros founded Borough Broth despite having no food industry experience, but with key skills and strengths.
- How her journey began as part of a personal health regimen and how it became a business.
- The transition and challenges of scaling from small, shared kitchen to a larger industrial environment.
- The importance of staying on top of financials and building investor relationships.
- How she runs Borough Broth, the transition to an SLT and the demands on a founder as the business grows up.
Chapters:
01:34 — Origin story: gut health, a dismissive GP, and butcher's waste bins
05:12 — From IT consultant to food founder
06:44 — Early growth: organic beginnings, Selfridges in year one
09:15 — How the Ocado relationship started
12:20 — Raising with Piper Private Equity: how it actually happened
14:31 — Is broth a one-trick pony? The frozen cube launch
19:04 — From solo founder to SLTs, and how Ros structures her week
21:48 — Goal setting, board meetings and KPIs post-raise
23:20 — The EOS model: Visionary vs Integrator
30:22 — Burnout, Long Covid, and the retailer crisis that risked everything
33:10 — Asana, founder podcasts, and how LinkedIn misleads
35:46 — Quickfire questions
Links and Resources
Connect with Ros on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosheathcote/
Find out more about Borough Broth, find stockists and buy online:
https://boroughbroth.co.uk/
New Frozen Beef Bone Broth Cubes available on Ocado:
https://www.ocado.com/products/borough-broth-organic-frozen-beef-bone-broth-cubes/683981011
Register for IFE, March 30-April 1, where Ros and Karen will be speaking:
https://www.ife.co.uk/
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