Career Spotlight: We Founded a Successful Pickle Business
Starting a food brand from scratch is a romantic ambition that many of us harbour. The farmers market stall, the first jar sold to someone who isn't your best mate, getting to produce something that you really love... it sounds like a dream. But between that first batch and a genuinely sustainable business lies a distinctly un-romantic stretch of road that very few people talk about honestly: the scaling nightmares, the cost calculations you didn't think about, the years of exhausting physical work with no guarantee it will pay off.
James Cooper of Shedletsky's knows that road well. What started with kimchi-making pop-ups in a tiny London flat became an award-winning pickle and ferment brand, Along the way, he and his partner Nat have won a stack of Great Taste awards, built the business entirely without outside investment, and been approached by a publisher to write their cookbook, Tickle Your Pickle, all while still getting up at 4.30am to buy produce at market and delivering orders by hand.
In this Career Spotlight, James gets into the real detail of what it takes to turn a passion for food into a food manufacturing business, from the pricing mistakes that cost them early opportunities, to the relentless juggle of being salesperson, content creator, accountant and production team all at once. If you've ever thought about launching your own product, this is essential reading.
What was the journey that led you to your current role?
I grew up surrounded by food. My parents ran a restaurant in the West Country and my mum actually won MasterChef way back in the Lloyd Grossman era. Despite all that I actively avoided a career in the food industry. It just looked far too hard. I went into advertising instead.
Food kept finding a way back into my life though. I started a blog and wrote for Time Out documenting our mission to eat at every single restaurant on Kingsland Road in Dalston. That eventually escalated into running pop up kimchi making workshops and dining experiences out of our tiny flat. By 2019 I had had enough of advertising. I was ready to take the plunge and get into the food industry properly. We started making pickles in our kitchen and selling them at a car boot market round the corner. Winning a bunch of Great Taste awards in our first proper year of working made the business explode. We moved the operations out of our living room and haven't looked back since.
What’s been the hardest thing about your career journey so far and how did you get through it?
The hardest part of our journey has been realising that having a great product isn't enough to run a brilliant business. Food manufacturing is completely different from cooking at home or in a restaurant. We had to learn how to make food at scale from scratch. It is a massive challenge to maintain that artisan quality when you go from making twelve jars to a hundred and twenty and then twelve hundred at a time. Every single jump in scale means learning new techniques and solving new problems. Alongside all of that we are navigating rising costs everywhere. It is a constant balancing act to deliver a brilliant product we are genuinely proud of at a price people are still happy to pay.
What’s the realistic salary range for your role?
The reality is that starting a food manufacturing business is tough. We’ve been lucky that both Nat and I can do freelance work outside the food industry if we need to. That has supported the business when times are tight. Our salaries are completely tied to how well the business performs. In some years that has meant taking home about £25,000 and in others more like £50,000. It fluctuates as we make decisions about investing in future growth rather than taking money out of the business. Reinvesting most of the profits has meant we managed to grow the business to where it is today without any external investment at all. That is something I am extremely proud of. It has been tough and I certainly wouldn’t suggest people go into food manufacturing expecting to generate huge amounts of money. There is demand out there for incredible artisan products. If you can get it right and keep costs under control then it is possible to run a profitable business. It is just really hard.
What’s the most unexpected part of your role?
Getting approached by a big publisher to write a cookbook was definitely a surprise. One of their editors bought a jar of our pickles from a shop in South London and just got in touch. Off the back of it we got to write Tickle Your Pickle.
We have also met amazing chefs and store owners after they try our products. From these interactions we have formed incredible friendships and worked on some great collaborations.
Then there are the customers we meet at farmers markets and events at our production kitchen. It is amazing to connect with people who love food as much as we do. Some of the people we met on our market stall have actually become lifelong friends. Feeling part of a real community gives me faith when the business side feels tough. It proves there are people out there who genuinely love and value what we do.
What’s the best part of the job?
The best part of the job is having a platform to champion traditional ways of preserving food and making delicious things. It’s been great to see pickling get more popular and become part of the culinary conversation.
Even just a few years ago fermented foods were seen as a bit of a health food fad. Now they are just part of the mainstream conversation. Case in point we’re taking part in two dedicated pickle festivals this year. That is testament to how far pickling and fermenting have come in the UK. It has been an absolute pleasure to be part of that journey.
What’s the hardest or most draining part?
Doing absolutely everything yourself is probably the most draining part of operating a small business. We’re at the market at 4.30am buying produce. Then we make everything by hand and deliver the orders. That effort really adds up. I have certainly had to try to manage burnout. It is especially tough when the cost of everything keeps going up. That makes trying to lighten the load feel prohibitively expensive. Plus when you are so in the weeds with the day to day operations it is hard to find the headspace to do the critical thinking. You need time for future planning to make sure the business stays on a path to success.
What skills matter most in your role beyond the obvious ones?
Honestly it feels like you need to know everything. You have to be a brilliant salesperson. You need to stay on top of social media trends to make content people actually want to engage with. That content needs to sell your product too. You must be relentless about keeping costs down. Building real relationships with your suppliers and the people who stock your products is vital. You have to learn how to handle public speaking when event opportunities come up. You need serious resilience for when things inevitably go wrong. The list is endless.
What did you have to learn the hard way?
You really need to understand all your costs and what it actually takes to produce a jar right from the start. We were a bit lax on our pricing and true input costs in the early days. That meant when wholesalers and larger buyers came calling we did not really know what pricing we could offer them without completely killing our profitability. We missed out on opportunities because we were not able to have serious conversations about discounting and margins with any real confidence.
What advice would you give to someone trying to break into this role today?
Go for it but know it is incredibly tough. You can absolutely jump in with a family recipe and a lot of passion and start selling at farmers markets. Just be prepared that it will take years.
It will be exhausting and there will be constant setbacks along the way if you want to transform what is essentially a hobby into a serious business.
Say yes to everything. Who knows what opportunities will emerge. Even if you do not know if you can deliver, say yes and figure it out.
What’s the best piece of advice that YOU were given?
Know your numbers. You can have the best recipe and product in the world but if you do not have a handle on exactly what it costs to make and deliver into your customers hands you will never have a real business.
