Green Gourmet Case Study

Many small business owners manage every aspect of their business, leading them to become bottlenecks within their own organisation.  Companies such as The FD Centre support smaller organisations (with a personnel of xx and above) without impacting the overheads, whilst having the capability to negotiate good deals on their clients behalf.  Green Gourmet are one example of how The FD Centre were able to add value.

Green Gourmet supply nutritional frozen food to education, healthcare and leisure. Founder and Managing Director, Adam Starkey reflects on how and why they came to the decision to look for outsourced finance director support within the business:

"At one time I was obsessed with the production costs and maximising the percentage gross margin I made per item. As a result, I was designing the production lines myself and being a jack-of-all-trades. In my attempt to save the odd percentage point on my gross margin, I became the bottleneck of the business and could not find any time to secure new customers or develop new products. It was my controlling nature that ruled my decision making rather than common sense. 

I finally took the advice I had been given years before and found other factories to make my food.  They were better than me at running factories and I was better at understanding what markets wanted and what factories were capable of. The value in the business was the recipes, the supply chains and the sales contracts. Now I sub-contract the manufacturing of our recipes to a number of suppliers that specialize in different processes. 

My decision to work with The FD Centre was driven by a referral received from a colleague who used to negotiate his own finance.  He is not ‘scared' of finance, as many small business owners tend to be, however, soon after he had negotiated his latest deal, he talked to The FD Centre and was amazed at the difference they could have negotiated.  I thought if they can save money for someone who is good at finance, how much can they save me? 

With my part time FD, we have introduced long term supply arrangements with these suppliers, allowing me to focus on developing new products and new markets. As a result the business has the most flexible cost base of any manufacturer with the ability to triple in size in 3 years.

The FD Centre's approach saved money and was more efficient. Crucially, the process needed zero management input from me.  That is vital to business managers.  It is too easy to take your eye off your core business when something important gets in the way.          

I have access to my own Finance Director when I need one - without having an FD on the payroll.  That's a terrific benefit for the future".      

If you would like more information about how the FD Centre can help your business with a Free Financial Health Check, contact Andrew Forster or click here to register your details.