Richard Reed
Entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Innocent Drinks
Richard is the co-founder of innocent drinks, the number one smoothie brand in the UK. The business was started in May 1999 by Richard and two friends, and turned over £100m in 2007, selling over two million smoothies a week in the UK and Europe. The innocent story shows that with a non-corporate attitude, a fantastic product and creative thinking it is possible to create a fast growing, profitable company that acts responsibly.
Innocent drinks is not Richard’s first enterprise. In fact, Richard’s entrepreneurial career started earlier than most, when he began washing windows for his neighbours at the age of eight. Following a brief spell of selling Smurf stickers at junior school (until his teachers caught him), Richard retired from the coalface of self-employment, aged 12. However, a summer job picking up dog biscuits in a pet food factory soon reminded Richard of the joys of working for himself, and led him to set up a summer gardening business called Two Men Went to Mow, employing his school friends.
After graduating from Cambridge University and working in advertising for four years, Richard and his two college friends Jon and Adam, decided to set up a lovely fresh fruit juice company. After six months of developing recipes in their kitchen, the boys wanted to test their drinks with a wider audience. To do so, they bought £500 of fruit, turned it into smoothies and sold them from a stall at a music festival. They put up a sign that said, ‘Should we give up our jobs to make these smoothies’, and put out a big bin that said NO and one that said YES. Fortunately, at the end of the weekend, the YES bin was full so they went in the next day and resigned.
Nine years into the business Adam, Jon and Richard are closer friends than ever and innocent is the number one smoothie brand in the UK with a market share of 82%1. The company now employs 270 people, and sells over two million little tasty drinks in over 11,000 outlets each week. The innocent range has expanded to include: special smoothies for children, big one litre cartons for families at home, thickies for a yoghurt and fruit blend as well as orange juice. September 2008 saw the launch of Veg pots, a range of quick and tasty meals. The drinks and business regularly win industry awards, including Best Soft Drink in the UK 2006 (for the fifth year running), Growth Strategy and Business Innovation of the Year at the National Business Awards and Growth Strategy at the European
Business Awards.
As a business we want to make it easy for people to do themselves some good. And we want to leave the planet a little bit better than we found it. This is reflected in everything from our use of green electricity at Fruit Towers, to sourcing fruit from places that go the extra mile in terms of looking after the people that work on the farms, and the environment. All our bananas come from Rainforest Alliance accredited farms. Every year we donate 10% of our profits to the innocent foundation, which funds NGOs in the countries where we source our fruits.
Recent Awards
* Business Awards
* E&Y Young Entrepreneur of the Year
* National Business Awards - Small/Medium Business of the Year
* Growing Business Awards - Most Promising New Company
* Orange Small Business of the Year Orange Marketing Campaign of the Year
* Orange Innovative Company of the Year
* Best Investors in People - National Business Awards
* Innovative Company of the Year - Growing Business Awards
'Innocent Drinks' Awards
* Best UK Soft Drink - International Food and Drink Expo
* Best UK Soft Drink - Q Awards
* Best UK Soft Drink - Great Taste Awards
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