Fudge Kitchen

A year after Fudge Kitchen completed their product rebrand with the support of Design Council, they grew their wholesale turnover from £0 to £70,000, which subsequently grew to £450k by 2014.

Ambition

Managing Director of Fudge Kitchen, Sian Holt, was eager to grow her business by entering the wholesale market and expanding throughout the UK.  She turned to Design Council to help her achieve her aim.

The process

Design Council’s expert Design Associate Gavin Pryke worked with Fudge Kitchen over six months to identify exactly what their business challenges were. He identified three key areas to support a strategic route to success:

• The shelf life of the product had to be extended before entry into the wholesale market
• The product needed a more upmarket positioning
• Greater brand clarity regarding logo and naming was required

Drawing upon his 20 years of design knowledge, Pryke developed a design brief and matched Fudge Kitchen with the perfect agency for their needs, Ape Creative.

The results

With Design Council support in place, and Ape Creative carrying out the brief, Sian Holt achieved her wholesale goal and went on to strike a number of deals with exclusive outlets including Lakeland, Selfridges and multiple speciality food outlets.

After an initial investment of circa £10k in rebranding, Fudge Kitchen management have come to appreciate the role and value of design in achieving their aim to ‘become the most devilishly different premium fudge brand in the UK & Abroad’ and now budget to spend a minimum of 5% of net turnover annually on new packaging, product or POS design.

Crucially, Fudge Kitchen’s presence on the high street continues to grow through the introduction of a range of new products, including a gourmet fudge selection and a make-at-home kit.