Exclusive: Planet Organic Founder reveals being pushed out & forced to sign gag orders before saving broken co | Renée Elliott

0:05It felt like ripping my arm off without anesthesia. I thought it's over, they're going to kill it. They're going to kill the business because they're fighting amongst themselves. This is my story and this is my understanding. I'm sure they have their side of the story, but this is what I know and this is what I remember.

0:30It's not unusual to interview a founder who has exited their business. What is unusual is to hear the story of a founder who exits, goes off and lives their life and then comes back to save the brand they started, a reincarnation. This episode is all about second chances, a second chance with a business, but also to tell a story freely. This is Secret Leaders and I'm Dan Murray Serta. Renee Elliott launched Planet Organic in 1995. Two years later, her business partner decided they should part ways and threatened Renee with legal action if she didn't agree to being bought out. Renee refused. What followed was 14 months of litigation that culminated in a battle in the high court.

1:18Renee won, and along with her husband Brian, who came on as managing director, took back control of the business. They ran it together for 10 years. Then, in 2009, they took a decision to step away from the business. With each child, you know, with the first one, with Jess, I'd take her in to the business. I'd be breastfeeding at board meetings, freaking all the male shareholders out. But if you can do that anywhere, it's planned organic. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, that's my company. I'm an entrepreneur. Then you have a second one. So then I had a three-year-old and an infant. And suddenly, that's just not possible.

1:56So I stepped away from the business again a little bit. And then I had my third and it was like, oh, geez, I was so stressed. I thought, oh, my God, this is just impossible. I couldn't run the business with Brian and be the mother that I felt I should be with my children. So it was decision time. So I decided to raise my kids. With the shareholders, we hired a CEO to run Planet. And I didn't leave Planet. I'm still a shareholder director employee. but we stepped away to a very large degree. That was Renee talking to me back in June 2018 in the second season of Secret Leaders. We talked about why she started Planet Organic, her incredible legal fight with her co-founder and how after stepping back from the business, they'd moved to Italy for a number of years before coming back to the UK when Renee started Beluga Bean, a coaching and wellbeing business.

2:52A couple of months after that recording you just heard, Renee sold the majority of her stake in Planet Organic. She'd done it, achieved the entrepreneur's dream, built a business, sold it, and could now relax. But that's not the end of this tale. Because in May 2023, Renee made headlines when she led a bid to buy Planet Organic after it was announced the company was going into administration. So, I invited Renee back on. No holds barred. What happened? What I wasn't expecting is the story is both vastly different to what I'd previously thought and goes back much further. So it was in 2009. And what had happened is when my first partner tried to take Planet from him, we ended up in court, I brought shareholders in to buy him out.

3:47And that was not an easy journey. And after 10 years of Brian and I, my husband, Brian and I running the company together, the shareholders at the time were, you know, this is my story and this is my understanding. I'm sure they have their side of the story, but this is what I know. And this is what I remember. And they wanted Planet for themselves. It was another person or group trying to take ownership of Planet because they could see the potential and it's a beautiful business. And they had asked us to leave. They had made life difficult for us and it was getting very unpleasant. And then in 2009, they made Brian redundant and then they pushed me out.

4:35And I was on maternity leave with my third child and they didn't tell me what to say, but I had to sign a gag order and wasn't allowed to say what had happened because it was so awful. So I had to create a story that was believable to tell close friends because as you know me, Dan, I'm pathologically honest. And I had to talk about something that was believable for me to even tell a non-truth. So I said, my story became, and I said this on your podcast, that it became very difficult to run the business and to have the three children. And I chose my family. And that became the story that I told.

5:24But I was pushed out of the business and nobody has known that until now. And then I negotiated, though, that I was still a shareholder, that I would remain a director, and that I would do two days a month. So there was a loose association with the business. And as a director, I was coming in and out of the business. And by 2016, there were three main shareholders. They had fallen out and it was deeply unpleasant. And there was a board meeting in the fall of 2016 where I thought, it's over. They're going to kill it. They're going to kill the business because they're fighting amongst themselves.

6:11So I came home and talked to Brian and I said, look, we have to do something. We have to either get them to sell or get them to agree for someone else to come in to break up that there were two shareholders who were agreeing and one who wasn't. So luckily, they agreed to go on that journey. And that's when the VC came into Planet Organic in around 2017. But that process started in 2016. And again, people say that's when I sold. I wasn't a willing seller. I had to sell to bring the VC in who wanted over 50%. And the shareholder who had been sort of separated out from the other two had to sell his shareholding to leave.

6:56So that was in 2017. And again, that was so awful, the way they treated me that I had to sign another gag order and not talk about that. So Planet has run since then. Since the VC came in, the story I'm told, I mean, I was then reduced shareholding. and not a director and not an employee. I was completely pushed out, except as I kept some of my shareholding. That's when I think the values started to slide and they started to lose the heart and soul of Planet, which should be the whole reason someone invests in a company and they keep those values. But we've all heard this story a million times before, where that's not what they do.

7:40I think from the outside in, there's always been this kind of question of Planet Organic, you know, appears nationally well-known, respected, successful. And here is a founder who the narrative is they've exited Planet Organic and, you know, to some kind of consortium, it's maybe private equity, maybe it's venture capital, whatever the thing is, but she's exited. And so it must have done really well. And she must have had a phenomenal financial exit that set herself up for life. And she's doing this like coaching business. Why? Why isn't she just retired and chilling? So, and obviously you can't talk about it.

8:27So, and obviously, you know, who on earth is nosy like that other than me? So I'm not saying that everyone thinks these things, but what was the reality. And people make assumptions all the time, which I always warn against. It's such a dangerous thing to do. So the reality was, it wasn't a great price for my shares. And there was a part of me that thought, oh, I didn't start Planet to Make Money. And I've said this publicly many times. I created Planet to, the big goal was to, the mission is to promote health in the community and support the earth's biodiversity. That was my grand mission to change the world in a positive way with my life.

9:15But the really personal and selfish reason I started Planet was to have meaningful work to do for the rest of my life. And I've said that and people have said, well, then why did you leave? And now I can say, well, I didn't leave. So when I was forced to leave and thought, geez, what do I do now? I have to earn. I didn't walk away with gazillions. What on earth am I going to do? It took me a while to figure that out. And we had been in Italy and we had come back in 2013. And that's when I just thought, well, I'll do what I love because Planet was amazing, but it was a roller coaster and it was very challenging because I've always had shareholders.

9:58And I thought I'll do something that is really about ease and joy and uses my skills. And that's when I started Beluga being the business mentoring and personal coaching company to earn money and to do work that I love and that's meaningful and that use everything I'd learned in my life to that point. Do you miss not having a proper, exciting, big, but stressful business and all these employees. Well, it's interesting because when I left, when I was pushed out in 2009, it felt like ripping my arm off without anesthesia. Planet was my baby and I'd always said that. And when I left in 2009, Planet was 14 years old.

10:50So it was like leaving a 14-year-old when I wasn't ready to. And I had three children. I had a seven-year-old, a four-year-old, and a one-year-old. So when I look back on it now, I think, wow, what a gift. We went to Italy. I raised my kids. I was very present. I wrote some books. We had the Italian chapter, which was pastoral beauty and just a very sweet chapter in my marriage and with my children. And then we came back and I thought, okay, I'm not done yet. I think I was around 50 when we came back. And I thought, what am I going to do next? And it took a while. I tinkered around in different areas and thought, what do I love?

11:38What's sticking? And I found the work I'm doing now. and then I thought, okay, well, I'm 59 this year, which is insane. And my husband's older and we talk about, are we going to retire? Are we ever going to retire? Because as you know, when you do work you love, you think maybe I'll just keep working until I keel over. And I just reduced down to four days a week from January because I thought, okay, I love my work. I don't have to do it five days a week in terms of earnings. I can do four. I can start exploring what else would I do? What would I do in spare time that I haven't had with my eldest just turning 21?

12:16You know, it's been kids and work. So I just reached this kind of really lovely spot in January where I was thinking, okay, four days a week. And I've raised my kids and my youngest is 15. So I'm not done yet, but they're really growing up and growing well. And talking about, you know, looking at your financial future, looking at how you spend your time, what else do you want to do with your life, what's on your bucket list. This is the next chapter is kind of the last big chapter. So, that's all been spinning around talking about that. And I'm really grateful. I never regret anything because I believe that life unfolds as it should.

12:58So, when I look back and think, huh, isn't that funny? I got pushed out. At the time, it was incredibly painful for me, but it enabled me to raise my kids, do this new career. And I've done a lot of personal development and self-discovery over that time as well. I'm a different person and I

13:22am freer now. It's an interesting time in my life. I'm freer, I'm calmer, I'm wiser. So the events of the last few months are really interesting for me. I think one of the really interesting things that can hopefully inspire people there is you've had this unexpected opportunity to really invest in personal development and growth in a way that is so aligned with what the business and organic is going to need from you. Anyone that's listening knows this as a CEO. Being a CEO is an amazing growth opportunity in many ways, but it can be so busy that you can totally forget to like consciously work on and develop some of the skills that you really need to.

14:04I love this idea of understanding that it's not really about what happened to you. It's about things unfolding exactly as they should and having a sort of self-acceptance and awareness of what that can actually mean for how you can probably show up and be a better CEO now as well, which I listen to and I find really partly admirable. I admire it. And then partly I'm just jealous. Well, and that's what I coach about. So this is when I say I've focused on this, I've been learning and this is the coaching I do with entrepreneurs, with small businesses, because I love the strategic planning, as you know, but there's no point doing that if you don't have the self-belief and the trust to let life unfold.

14:50Otherwise, you're in a constant state of anxiety or stress. So this really, I love this because a lot of people don't understand this. Totally. So you sold the business. You're a small shareholder. You're living your life. You're doing your coaching. You're personally developing. Do you stay close to the business? Are you trying to like stay up to date with what's going on or are you kind of like it's too difficult completely out of it so when you said was it you also asked what was it like to walk away from that you know planet was big and lots of people and lots of processes so I've been out of that for it really feels like because I kind of feel like I left in 2016 seven years I've been out and um it's a whole different world you know me it was me and my business partner and my clients And it's really, it's a nice tidy package and it's really calm and very different world from that.

15:43But I've, you know, I've stopped reading the Soil Association Organic Update because I'm doing other things. I don't even look at the, all I saw was an occasional shareholder update from Planet where I think, okay, they're doing that. And other than that, no, I was looking in this direction and now I'm looking in a different direction, which is really about self-awareness. So about, I don't know what it was, maybe 18 months ago, I noticed Planet Organic suddenly doing a crowdfund, 30 million pound valuation. And did you know about the crowdfund? Because obviously it sucks for you because you weren't involved, but like a bunch of people will have lost their money.

16:22Yes. Well, people didn't lose on the crowdfund because they gave it back. I didn't know that. Okay. That's great. I really didn't pay attention to it. My husband would read the documents. I don't even think they send them to me. They'd never even send me the shareholder update. It would go to Brian and he'd say, oh, I've had it. They're going to raise money and open 50 stores. And I said, what? So this is what happened about a year ago. They hired a new CEO who came in and said, I'm going to, you know, big plans going to do this, open 50 stores, central warehouse. And all I can see is like cartoon pound signs in their eyeballs, imagining that.

17:01So they went with this CEO and embarked on that course of action. And I wasn't even paying attention to the detail of the raise last year, but I knew there were many things going on. And what I heard is that they had a valuation of$35 million last December. And on the back of that, they raised$6 million, not from the crowdfund. But that was kind of the last I heard. And then I heard they were opening 100 stores. And I was like, what? You can't. It's not the model. So a good question that you might or might not know is where did all that money go? The 6 million? So that I heard in December. And then in January, February, March, they opened two stores in dumb locations, Henley and Teddington.

18:00It's like all the market research we'd ever done would have never led you to those locations. and they had a, now I don't know everything. I know what I've learned since then. They had a very big head office function to take it to 50 stores. So they were sucking money into head office and the central warehouse was not cheap. So I think it was expensive mistakes, um, greedy decisions. I don't know everything that happened, but I think that's what happened in a very short space of time. Okay. So stick in the time machine, it's March the 30th. This year, 2023, came to that day. What happens? So I'd had some clients and it was the afternoon and my mobile rang and it was the then CEO of Planet.

18:59I picked up the phone and he said, Renee, look, just giving you the heads up, in 30 minutes, we're giving notice of administration, just letting you know so you can tell your friends and family before we give notice that they've lost everything. And I thought, wait, what? I couldn't even compute. I wasn't even sure what notice of administration meant.

19:24So I didn't even ask anything. I was just so in such a muddle. So I put the phone down and talked to my husband. I had other clients to deal with, and then something that evening. And then we got up the next morning and I said, okay, what does this mean? And we sat and talked about it and realized that we'd lost the bit that the chunk that we thought would be for the children that we hadn't made yet from planet gone. And And my family and friends, I had to call everyone and say, look, I'm really sorry, but they've given notice of administration and said that we have two weeks to find a buyer where planet goes under and 14 stores close and 260 people lose their jobs and it's gone.

20:13And they managed to, in a year, kill what has been running for 27 years.

20:25so I quickly got over the loss of that. We had suffered the financial loss because I'm, I'm a fatalist. I'm like, Oh, well, you know, I'll figure something else out. And, um, it's happening. And we decided to rescue planet. And we kind of kicked into gear with that, um, on the Saturday, I think Friday was a heavy work day. So Saturday, we got up and said, okay, what's the plan? What was the plan? The first thing, so I thought three things. I thought, one, I'm going to get a team together, trusting that the team who'd been managing it would leave because they had caused the demise, even though that wasn't what was being said.

21:09What they were saying was the recession, the war in Ukraine, all kinds of external events. And I was like, what? And I thought, I just knew the underlying business would be strong. I couldn't see how that had suddenly just fallen apart. And we did prove that to ourselves in the data room a couple of weeks later. So I thought, I need a buyer, I need a team, and I can help fundraise. so I immediately called Peter Marsh who had been the CEO he was let go a year before when the new guy came in I called him up and said Peter would you we got on a zoom call I said I know you're doing something else but would you come back to Planet and help if I can find a buyer and he said Renee I'd do anything for Planet Organic and then I called Al Overton who was the buyer I hired 19 years ago.

22:01He worked on the shop floor. He was the buying director when he left about a year ago as well. Then I called him and I said, would you come back? I need a team if I can find a buyer. And he said, Renee, I'd do anything for Planet Organic. And I said, that's funny, Peter just said that. So I thought, okay, I've got a team. They're it and they know the team really well at Planet. And then we set about just calling everyone we knew for a private buyer. I called friends I knew, I called adjacent businesses where I thought someone might be interested. And it was absolutely insane two weeks of not really understanding what was happening.

22:43So it seemed as if every day the goalposts would change. The administrators would say, oh, this is going to happen. Oh, no, that's not going to happen. The next day they'd say, oh, no, this is going to happen. And having never gone through the process and relying on them, it was just wild. It was like a wild roller coaster where I thought I was going to be flung out any minute talking to potential investors. And then somewhere in that process, we found someone we thought was a good idea. He seemed really cool and young and great ideas. And then I was talking to a potential buyer who I knew I've known for years.

23:18And on the phone call, he said, Renee, why aren't you buying it? And I kind of went, oh, no, me, no. Well, first of all, I said, I've just lost a ton of money. And I'm a coach. You know, I'm not a retailer anymore. I've moved on. And then he said, well, what if you had the money? And there were four of us on a Zoom call. And I just, I stopped. I absolutely stopped. And I think I closed my eyes and I thought, and I tried to imagine myself back in planet after really 14 years of not being intimately involved with it. And I opened my eyes and I said, well, when you put it that way, yeah, I would buy it.

24:06And I said, are you offering to back me? And he said, no. He said, but why should I buy it if you're not prepared to buy it. And I thought, oh, good question. So then the next morning, we talked to this potential buyer we were backing. And I'd said, here's a team and do you need help raising finance? And the person I'd spoke to the previous night about potentially buying it had emailed and said, look, we're not going to buy it. We just don't have any retail experience, too big a risk for us. But I then emailed him in the morning and said, look, I think I'm going to lead a bid. We have a little bit of cash.

24:42And if I lead and I'm looking for bids, would you put in, I'm looking for, we were looking for about 1.5 million, 250 to half a million. And over the morning while I was on the phone with this other potential purchaser, he emailed in about four emails and came through finally with, we'll do the 1.5 million. So I was like, oh my God, okay. But we were still talking to this other potential buyer who I thought was a really good bet. And I still was like, terrifying to think of going back in. So Brian and I talked about it because bids had to be in the next day at four. And we talked about it. And I said, if we risk derailing this other guy, because he's ready to go.

25:26So we decided not to put our bid in. And then, so bids went in Thursday at four. And then I got up the next morning and I was in tears. And Brian said, you know, I came down for coffee and I'm like, he said, what's wrong? And I said, I think we have to go for it because we risk the current bidder not bidding enough because we'd also heard from the administrator, he wasn't bidding enough. And we'd heard that there were two other people bidding for the brand. And I don't even know if those rumors are true now. I have no idea. Which meant all the stores would close and someone would just buy the brand.

26:05And I thought, okay, well, that's not satisfactory. Someone buying it who couldn't trade through what has been a tricky three months and will be another tricky three months probably. And then someone to vision the company with the values that it started and promote health in the community and support the airspace biodiversity. So Brian and I were sitting on the sofa looking at each other and he said, whose are the safest towns for the business? and do you feel a responsibility to plant organic? And I said, hours. And yes, I do. And I said, I can't do this without you. Are you in? And he said, I'm in.

26:43And he said, are you in? And I said, I'm in, in a tiny voice. So this was the Friday morning. So I called the administrator and I said, look, I'm sure you've heard this a million times before. I know we missed the deadline, but can we put a bid in? And he said, you have an hour. So it was, that was insane trying to get lawyers, trying to get the bid in, trying to fill in all the paperwork. And we did it. But then it was another two weeks of crazy, of people dropping in, people coming out, someone else coming in. And we didn't actually know until the very end. It was Monday, April 24th. So it was now a month of this insane, every day, something crazy going on.

27:25and there was another bidder who put a bid in and we were told final bids it in at two and then the administrator emailed at 220 and said best and final offers by 315 because the banks close at three they said the money has to be in and you have to submit a new bid and we had been told that we were out bid but we didn't know if anything we didn't know what was true at that point. And by now the price had dropped. So 35 million valuation in December, because of people coming and going, it was now looking like we had offered 720 ,000. I now know the other bidder was at 750. So when it was lost in final offers, and we didn't know any of this, we bumped it up to 810.

28:18and he held at 7.50. So at 12 past four, the administrator called on my mobile and said, good news, we've accepted your offer. And I yelled, hallelujah. And then we looked at each other like, oh my God, hold on or don't hold on. Enjoy the ride. So it was just, it was an insane month and we just turned our lives completely upside down. So you bought the business back for£810 ,000. Do you have to get a consortium for that? Is it just you two and you're the only owners? Did you have a group of merry men with you? We have a main investor who's an old family friend, an old friend of ours. And then we've put a little consortium of friends and family, many of whom had just lost the money who want to come in again.