How Tonic Health Built a Team to Scale

0:03As the founder or leader of a scaling challenger brand, finding the right people to join your growing business can be much harder than you think. That's why we've teamed up with FMCG specialist recruitment consultancy, MKJ Ignite, to bring you the best people and recruitment insights from some of the most successful founders out there. Obviously your business has had to grow, your team has had to grow with the business. So it started out with just you. Who else is in the business now? Now we've got a whole team, believe it or not. We've got a finance director, we've got a head of operations, head of sales, head of marketing, head of growth.

0:42So we've got a really kind of solid team now where all parts of the business are being operated by someone brilliant. So head of growth, what do they do? Is it online? Head of growth is online, And so I focus primarily on Facebook ads, Google ads, you know, TikTok ads, those kinds of things. They're driving real conversion online. And where do they sit? Are they all at home or in an office? So, yes, interestingly, I did the opposite of what everyone does, which is during COVID, I went and got an office because I couldn't handle being at home all the time. And vitamins were part of the essential work category.

1:17So I got an office nearby and, you know, it was there for people that wanted to come and I didn't force anyone to come if they didn't want to, but whatever, it was there. So we worked in an office during COVID. And then when we came out of COVID and all the office places put up their prices by like double to try and, you know, make their money back again, we closed the office and went fully virtual as a business. So we've been virtual for the last sort of two and a bit years. so you know we try and meet up every two three months in and around London typically but primarily everything's online through Slack through Zoom through all the typical channels and yeah we've all been very good at doing it that way it poses it has pros and cons.

2:01Yeah and as you grow you know you're a 10 now but when each of those people start building down teams how will that look because they might have like you know your your ops director might have five people underneath them. yeah well that bit you know is still definitely that bit's still definitely part of our learning journey like we you know we were five six people up until very recently so definitely can see straight away it's like okay now we need to start thinking about building culture and values and things because with the size we've been primarily you know you rely on your own values to to hire people and run.

2:38But now we need to kind of codify that a little bit more and expand it into the team as more and more people join so they understand how we like to work, basically.

2:49I'm delighted to be partnering with MKJ Ignite, an FMCG recruitment specialist who supports challenger brands just like yours. MKJ Ignite has worked with some of the fastest growing brands in the industry, including the likes of Real Superfoods, Purdy & Fig, Hunter & Gather, Lucky Saint and Untamed. Recently, I asked Director Immy Southwell to explain the real value that a specialist recruiter like MKJ Ignite can offer founders. So I think at MKJ Ignite, we don't just place candidates. So we really help founders build the teams that's going to really scale their business, which is pretty exciting.

3:22So we specialise in FMCG from grocery to e-commerce to multi-channel brands. and we really know what it takes to take them from a pre-revenue all the way to a 50 million and hopefully beyond. So we partnered with some of the UK's most exciting challenger brands so the list is like Lucky Saint, True Start Coffee, Hunter and Gather, Real Superfoods and we've really helped those businesses higher across sales, marketing, category and MPD. So we really act as a true people partner, not just a recruiter, really helping businesses build the right teams to really hopefully fuel their next stage of growth.

4:05Honestly, besides the obvious value of having a deep network and tons of experience in recruitment, so much more time and effort goes into finding the right people than you might think. No matter what stage of the journey you're at, MKJ Ignite can help you find the right people for your marketing, e-commerce, sales or operations teams, whether that be at middle management or senior leadership roles. They have an extensive network of deep personal relationships in the space. And I think that's because they are really lovely, genuine people. So if you want to chat to Imi, Paul or Billy about all things recruitment, or indeed, if you just need a piece of advice, then please do reach out to them.

4:42There's a link in the show notes to book a no obligation chat, or you can email them at info at mkj-ignite.co.uk. Thanks to MKJ Ignite for bringing us this nugget of brand growth value today. Don't forget to hit follow so you won't miss the next one.