Snacks group Pladis has launched an accelerator programme aimed at supporting early-stage companies both locally and internationally.
Eyeing an ageing population and a growing interest in supply chains, Pladis, the owner of brands including Godiva and McVitie’, is looking to work with start-ups in “food tech, health, and sustainability”.
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Just Food sat down with Pladis chief R&D officer Jennifer Moss to discuss how the accelerator will work, the types of start-ups the company is looking to attract and how she hopes the scheme will benefit the group.
Dean Best (DB): There was a flurry of corporate accelerators launched in the late 2010s. Is this the first time Pladis has set up an accelerator?
Jennifer Moss (JM): This is the first time. We’re only eight years old ourselves, so it’s the first time we’ve got to the stage [to decide] whether it’s time to do it. It’s been in the planning less than 12 months, really.
DB: Will Pladis be investing in any of the start-ups that take part?
JM: No, not at this point. It’s about mentoring, providing scale to help them to market, using our facilities, areas like that.
DB: Talking to start-ups over the years that have been involved in accelerators, some of have said they actually want the sponsors to buy some equity to give them an extra incentive to take part.
JM: We’re not doing that; I suppose we’re at the start of learning how to work best with start-ups. You’re right, probably ten years ago, there were lots of models. This model is definitely about learning about each other. It’s a four-month accelerator and it’s really about mentoring, them learning about us and us learning about them.
DB: What’s Pladis trying to get from this itself?
JM: One is us looking at the future of snacking, so, out to 2035 and what’s going to change. We’re a young company -people don’t realise we’re only eight years old – but with some iconic brands behind us. We have been very successful at what we do but we know that, if we’re going to be there in 2035, we have to both interact differently from an open innovation perspective, be at that cutting edge of what’s happening and then use our huge amount of experience.
For me, running innovation within the group, we’ve got brands that go back 100, 200 years, we’ve got all that experience with us but we really need both the experience of hearing what’s going on out there, plus almost help us culturally to change.
DB: How are you hoping this initiative could help Pladis improve its innovation processes?
JM: Well, really kick start the future of food for us. Generational changes are huge at the moment. Both the growth of the tech-savvy, elder consumer – I don’t like to call them older at my age but this end of the market – all the way to the newer generations, when you consider at the moment the Beta generation is being born. That’s a huge area of growth for Pladis to look at.
That’s where we’re looking for opportunities, so you’ll see it’s looking for generational changes and that’s more about beauty and all that through food, all the way back to younger children. Also, there’s a lot happening in food tech at the moment around bio fermentation and natural ways to get after ingredients. That’s a big focus for us as well.
DB: What can Pladis learn from the way start-ups innovate? Perhaps to be more agile?
JM: Definitely and the second part is cultural. I think there’s nothing better culturally for a bigger organisation that’s maybe been doing things traditionally than to work with some of those start-ups, to hear their fresh thinking, to think about the way they manage risk versus in a big company. That’s actually a big part of it for our teams, to bring their experience and expertise but see a different culture as well and ways of working.
DB: The call for the start-ups closes at the end of May. How many are you looking to have in this cohort?
JM: We’d probably like to have a maximum of four or five in this cohort, just so we can give them the right mentorship. We want to get our senior leaders involved to ensure that then you’re getting the right focus. If you have too many, they’re going to get diluted, especially if we’re going to help them with scale. We’ll help them with scaling, whether it’s procurement, financial organisation, or into our own kitchens and pilot plants. We don’t want too many this time around.
DB: During the four months, what are the main benefits start-ups can get from Pladis?
JM: Predominantly advice from Pladis’s senior leadership on global expansion, product design advice all the way through to how to commercialise breakthrough ideas, because we’ve done enough of that ourselves, through to support IP, regulatory — what we find with a lot of the young food start-ups in particular is they have a great idea but they don’t understand that regulatory world that they’ll flow into in particular.
DB: How developed do these companies have to be? Do they already need products in market? Do they need to be at a revenue phase?
JM: No, they don’t. We’re looking across areas. It could be a start-up with a proof of principle, all the way through to they are in-market, trying to work out how to scale. We do work with start-ups anyway at the moment but we’re just looking a bit wider across the whole food space, the ingredient space.
DB: Would the start-ups taking part be B2B outfits, rather than consumer-facing?
JM: They can be both. This is our first time doing it, so we’ll probably learn we need to be more targeted but, at the moment, they could be both. We’re going to look at all of the applicants to get that good balance of the two so we could support and mentor both areas.
DB: One area of interest for Pladis’s accelerator is sustainability. Is that more to do with product, rather than process?
JM: That’s more to do with ingredients. There’s such a revolution happening in ingredients at the moment, whether you’re looking at the palm fats, cocoa. There’s a lot of sustainable ingredients start-ups. And packaging, I’ll have to say we wouldn’t say no to a packaging solution.
DB: Do you foresee one of the start-ups taking part inspiring a product that Pladis might launch years down the line?
JM: I suppose not so much what is the idea or the ingredient but ways of working, definitely, culturally ways of working and us more supporting this part of the market to make sure the future of snacking is there for 2035 and beyond. That’s predominantly why we’re focused on it.
DB: Playing devil’s advocate, corporate accelerators have faced criticism that some sponsors can, without realising at least in the beginning, run them to answer the problems or the challenges the corporate itself is facing, rather than helping the start-up in a more business-neutral way grow and develop.
JM: I think that is a bit of a tension but I think we’re not investing in these [start-ups] as such. This is about us mentoring and supporting versus it being about our opportunities. I think that’s the way we’re looking at this differently as well; it’s about our cultural learning, as much as product learning.
DB: Some start-ups fear that, if they join forces with an accelerator, that ultimately their ideas could be used afterwards by the corporate in some way.
JM: Which they can’t, a normal NDA, confidential agreement means that that’s really set up publicly. That’s the normal ethics of it. It is the fear, right, if you haven’t worked with big business but, by the time you get a non-disclosure agreement or joint-development agreement, then it’s not something that happens.
DB: Pladis has also emphasised functional snacks as an area of interest. Can you be more specific on what particular types of products, ingredients or trends you think this accelerator could help you with?
JM: I think in general where AI and where us having personal data on our own bodies is going to come over the next ten years. If you see those foresight trends that are coming at us, it’s the combination of us being more focused on our health and wellness, more understanding of what different ingredients are having on our health and wellness, plus AI tools that will come over the next five and ten years – or I say that exist now, whether we’re wearing a ring or a Fitbit or a Zoe, they’re all coming at us, right? Us wanting that personal solution for us versus broader needs and us deciding – and the amount we’ve learned about gut health, too – to say that gut health is actually affecting my beauty, affecting how I feel, my mood, all those aspects are clear trends that we’re looking to capture in the next generation of snacking.
DB: It must be hard for someone in your position and your executive team to place bets on any of these particular trends, mustn’t it?
JM: That’s why the accelerator is part of our foresight work. It is, you know, walking out ten years. If we could bet what was going to happen, then we’d all be very wealthy people, right, but so many of the signals are here now. If you start with whether it is your Apple Watch or your Fitbit watch, or your Oura ring or your Zoe showing you what’s happening to your sugar levels, or whatever, the early signals are already so much in front of us at the moment.
Also, just the way that AI itself is going to predict and more say what you should do as a consumer. I think those two, in particular, are ones where you can say ‘Okay, I can start to have more of a bet.’ And combining that with what’s happening with biotech at the moment and, once again, powered by AI and a lot of that allowing precision fermentation.
DB: How is Pladis using AI in its innovation processes?
JM: A bit like everyone, I have to say it’s more we’re starting to use different playing aspects, whether it’s about, first of all, looking at food trends. There’s a number of companies out there at the moment that do that for you, from an AI, all the way through to us starting to play with AI tools on predicting consumer sensory wins for our products. Instead of going through a whole lot of consumer validation, how can we turn that fast? It’s at the beginning of us changing but there’s a couple of areas that we’re already starting.
DB: Is the accelerator part of a broader move to move the dial at Pladis towards more healthy snacks? Obviously, you’ve got brands like McVitie’s, which are likely to continue to exist because we all want a treat but companies in your position are having to have a weather eye on the market as people become more interested in the links between what they eat and their health. You may need to broaden your portfolio accordingly.
JM: Broaden your portfolio and be aware. At Godiva, when you’re paying for a premium chocolate, you are very clear but, even you paying for your premium chocolate at the moment might be looking for the dark chocolate, which has less sugar in it, right?
We’re not going to radically change from being a company that provides sweet treats and sweet moments of joy but, yes, we have to have our eye on it. We look at next-generation or future needs. We’ve done a whole lot of looking at improving our portfolio over time and that will continue. We’re not the sort to swing. [McVitie’s] Chocolate digestives are 100 years old this year. Godiva is 100 years old next year. I don’t think big trends like that change overnight but we have to keep our eye on with those future consumer needs as well.
