Barenaked Foods Noodles, 6 x 380g

Product Information

Getting your goods into a big supermarket can be transformational (5) What made you want to take part in Dragons? Den?

Description in one line: Innovative manufacturer of healthy, gluten-free, pasta, rice and ready meals Breaking into the multiple grocery market. Our first listing in the UK was in Morrisons. What numbers do you look at every day in your business? Having more confidence in my abilities. Sometimes even managing directors have bad days! What one thing do you wish you’d known when you started?Surrey-born, Delia Smith, is Norwich City Football Club's joint majority shareholder and is known for teaching basic cookery skills in a no-nonsense style. Smith became famous by hosting a cookery television show Family Fare which ran between 1973 and 1975. Her first television appearances came in the early 1970s, as resident cook on BBC's Look East. I had the idea for a low-carbohydrate pasta and rice in 2010. I didn’t have the guts to start the business because I was scared of failing. We have distribution in Dubai, Malta and recently South Africa. I would like to not only become an established healthy, gluten-free food brand in the UK but also internationally. The sky is the limit.

The language barrier was difficult but he knew that he had to find a factory which met UK food production standards. His patience paid off when he found the ideal place to produce his own style of konjac (or shirataki) noodles. It was my girlfriend (now wife) that gave me the confidence and courage to construct a business plan and seek investment to start Bare Naked Foods. I can remember the pep talk! She told me to stop moaning about my current job and either carry on doing it, or write a business plan and go and start-up the low-carb pasta business I kept talking about. I don’t have ANY regrets. Any decision I make I stand by. Even if I was wrong, I learn by it and it makes me a better businessman. What is the most common serious mistake you see entrepreneurs make?Since then, Bare Naked Foods has gone from strength to strength and is now on the shelves of big-name grocery stores. He had a difficult pitch with Deborah Meaden and Kelly Hoppen opting out very early. After an emotional explanation of funding, Mendham received interesting offers from Duncan Bannatyne, Piers Linney, and Peter Jones.

Ross admits that he has always found weight loss ‘especially difficult’ due to his love of pasta and rice. He thought ‘there must be a low fat, low carbohydrate version of the foods that he craves and loves – especially pasta!’ The only downside is the chicanery around declared weights (common to all konyaku noodle suppliers), which makes price comparison treacherous; as the noodles must be delivered in liquid, the drained weight vs full weight is rather important. Barenaked seems to be delivered in a minimum amount of liquid (good) but the drained weight is 350g, not the 380g claimed. These products are made from the konjac plant. Each serving (125g) of noodles or rice is only 15kcal! Each serving (125g) is only 22kcal! They also contain Glucomannan, which supposedly encourages weight loss.Ross was given initial funding from his future father-in-law, to get the business started. He travelled to the Chamber of Commerce, in China, to find out more about noodle manufacture. When Barenaked Foods founder Ross Mendham went on BBC investment show Dragons’ Den in 2013 to pitch his business it had been in operation for two years. Set up to provide low carbohydrate and gluten-free products, goods have now reached the shelves of major supermarket Morrisons. Barenaked Foods was founded in 2011 by Ross Mendham, who after years of dieting and worrying about the food he was eating, decided that ‘enough was enough.’ It was time to do something about it… To find out more, Business Advice caught up with Mendham and asked him how Jones has contributed and what his tips for dealing with supermarkets are.

He included a cooking demonstration of his noodles with the help of Dragon Kelly Hoppen which did not go as smoothly as he hoped. The entrepreneur decided that he would make this food available in the UK, so he created his own recipe with a blend of konjac, soybean and oatmeal flour to give his noodles a texture similar to traditional rice noodles. His recipe had no fat, sugar, dairy or gluten and was low in carbohydrate — and so… Barenaked Noodles were born!

I learnt everything as I went. I was willing to learn off veterans in the industry and of course, Peter Jones. What would make you a better leader? Bare Naked Foods is a brand of plant-based noodles, protein noodles, and rice that are low-carb, low-calorie, and have zero fat in them. They are also 100% vegan friendly. It's one of the hardest roads you can ever go down but the rewards are amazing and I’m not talking just financially – one year after I appeared on Dragons' Den, my son Oliver-Jude was born. Personal growth Biggest luxury: We have a turnover of 600, 000 as of June 2015, a 110 per cent increase on the previous year. With our extended distribution, turnover for the next year will hit 1m. I started off by importing 3, 000 units of product, and now we import 80, 000 units every six weeks. It's expanding year on year. Consumers are always looking at healthy alternatives. In the future, there will be a healthy gluten-free alternative for every product. What is the single most important piece of advice you would offer to a less experienced entrepreneur?