Despite leaving school without an A level to his name, Campbell landed on his feet and was thrust straight into the world of work.
After a successful stint as a salesman for a DIY brand, he soon outgrew the role and set off to make a name for himself with his first business venture – selling hand-printed wallpaper. This was not to last.
“Which, of course, was a total disaster,” Campbell explained. “But out of those ashes came all sorts of sort of learnings and experience.”
After bouncing around a number of successful sales roles, there came a point where he felt like a big fish in a little pond and needed to broaden his horizons.
The spark
The genesis of the Modern Baker brand lied almost in tragedy – shortly after they had met, co-founder Melissa was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was during a visit to the chemotherapy ward that the spark behind Modern baker came into being.
“Into the ward came the tea trolley, or whatever you want to call it, looking like something from a Carry On film – really old fashioned, except what was on it was not remotely funny,” said Campbell.
“So, into the chemo ward came piles and piles of crisps, sodas, chocolate bars and an air of excitement went around the place. It was just at that moment that Melissa was learning the connection between refined carbohydrates and cancer.
“Well, I remember clearly, we both clocked it. She looked at me and, leant over and just said to me ‘what the ****?’. It was at that moment that we both decided that we needed to repurpose our careers and see if there was anything we could contribute towards fixing this thing that was so clearly wrong. It was almost like a bad joke.”
A lack of food industry experience didn’t deter the two from their goal. In fact, this lack of knowledge empowered them to focus on their mission of changing the food system at its core.
Systems problem
“It’s a systems problem, that happens to be in food,” Campbell added. “It’s transformation we need around the reformulation of frequently eaten foods, to reframe them as – or to help them to become – healthier.”
And it’s never been a better time to be a challenger brand in the health and nutrition space. With big businesses so bogged down by regulations and guidelines, smaller companies can use their agility to better navigate the pitfalls when trying to disrupt the market.
“I don’t mean a trivial challenger brand, I mean a serious challenger brand with a serious purpose behind it,” Campbell added. “Then I would say that it’s a fantastic time to get started.”
Meanwhile, Food Manufacture spoke with Taylors Snacks managing director James Taylor to hear more about his food and drink industry ‘destiny’ and the success of the brand since its split from Mackie’s of Scotland last year.
