Whilst Moo Free was established in 2010, the story for this confectioner began in the 90s by what co-founder Andrea Jessop described as a “happy accident”. Alongside her husband and business partner Mike Jessop, the duo had originally been running a search engine business, setting up sites which collated where to find specialist commodities such as organic coffee.
Among these sites was a chocolate focused platform in which users could filter by allergies. What the Jessops hadn’t anticipated was the number of questions they’d receive about seasonal free-from chocolate, with people keen to find advent calendars and Easter egg options.
At the time, the free-from space was pretty non-existent. With no option other than to say ‘sorry, we can’t do that’, Andrea decided why not do it herself.
“We searched around for a couverture [essentially high-quality chocolate] – Mike had to drive all the way to Holland to get it,” she recalled.
From there she set to work, making free-from Easter eggs by hand.
“It took a week to make 60,” she chuckled, as she regaled the laborious process she had to undergo to create the eggs.
“I bought a tiny tempering machine and a mould – but I only had half an egg mould, so I’d pour one half in, let it set, tip it out and stick the two halves together.”
The problem was Andrea was so inundated with work she kept getting distracted during the process: “I kept forgetting they were in the fridge – I’d end up with a solid half egg, so I’d have to start again!”
The eggs were a big hit, selling out within a week.
“Then Waitrose phoned us,” Andrea laughed, noting that at the time, she didn’t realise that wasn’t a usual occurrence.
It just so happened that one of her Easter eggs had ended up with a relative of a buyer who was so impressed he asked the Jessops if they could supply the retailer next year.
“I said to him: I’m very sorry but I don’t think we can at the moment because we don’t have the capacity!”
Recognising both a gap in the market and an appetite from retailers, Andrea and Mike had a serious discussion about their latest venture.
“We either had to do this or not,” Andrea said, remembering the weekend they went away to chat about the business opportunity.
“We knew someone else would come up with it if we didn’t,” added Mike.
Since then, the business has continued to grow, seeing a record year in 2023, with an increase of 50% in the last 2 years and another 20% expected to be added to the 2024/25 sales numbers. Whilst any entrepreneur will want their business to be in demand, it wasn’t plain sailing for the duo.
‘We went over the top with allergies’
To gather funds in the first place, Mike used his IT skills to rack up money which he then invested straight into the business.
“Meanwhile we were living on credit cards,” he said. “All our money was going into the business; we were running it on about £60k worth of debt. We were living on nothing – no salaries.”
“I always think, how did we get through that? How did we survive,” Andrea told Food Manufacture.
“You forget a lot of it because at the time it’s very traumatic,” Mike interjected, both sincerely and light-heartedly.
“I’ve got a bad memory – so that really helps,” Andrea quipped back, although she did recount one incident where Mike had to remove 500 kilos of ingredients from their conche because it hadn’t been loaded correctly.
In the beginning, the duo was heavily involved in the business and that set a precedent for how the business is run today.
“Everything had to be perfect,” Andrea said, as she explained her meticulous attention to detail. “For me, when I was making chocolate, the machine had to be sparkling all the time. People probably found it quite frustrating…”
Mike agreed: “We went over the top with allergens too.”
Before the business’s first SALSA inspection, Andrea said she immersed herself in reading and online courses – and it paid off, with the inspector stating that they “went the extra mile”.
And whilst the Jessops have since taken a step back from being so hands-on with the business, this approach to food safety hasn’t fallen by the wayside either, with Andrea stating that her example has continued to be passed along from employee to employee.
“Even though we’re so much bigger, with two factories now, that’s [integrity] still there. I’m proud of that.”
It’s evident Moo Free is the real deal too. During Food Manufacture’s visit, the company was hit with an unannounced audit. But Andrea and Mike were cool as cucumbers, saying they make sure to be audit ready every day.
“So when we do have an audit, we don’t panic,” Andrea shrugged. “Just because you’re not having an audit doesn’t mean you can let things slip.”
‘We can trace products in seconds’
Alongside the duo’s detailed approach to hygiene, the company has stepped its integrity up yet another notch with the launch of its traceability tool in 2024, dubbed The Hub.
The Hub is a completely bespoke platform designed by Mike and contains a whopping 80,000 lines of code. It holds information such as product make-ups and recipe formulations to raw materials and packaging, and feeds into the planning tool to manage usage and stock levels.
“We tried all these different software when we were looking to move from a paper system to track stock, but it wasn’t quite right for what we were doing…so Mike wrote one,” Andrea said.
“One of the tests we’ll see in our audit is a simulated recall: ‘you have four hours to tell us what products it’s in, what customers have it’. We can do that in seconds now,” Mike added on the benefits of the new platform.
Whilst The Hub already stores and tracks an incredible level of detail, which can be filtered by department and a wide array of metrics, it also “never slows down”.
“With a lot of systems when data goes in, the system slows down. The Hub doesn’t care how big the data is, it’ll give you the answer just as quickly,” Mike added.
Now Mike is working on new additions to The Hub, including the ability for a warehouse to track Moo Free products to their exact location within the facility.
“Whilst there are location trackers already, this is an incredible game-changer as it combines all the other information that comes with the hub,” he explained.
Sales forecasts will also be integrated into The Hub which will enable the business to plan three years ahead in terms of what products and packaging, for example, they’ll need.
‘A different way of thinking’
Alongside instilling a certain level of integrity within the company, the Jessops were also keen to embed an inclusive nature within their business. This is driven by Andrea’s own experiences as a neurodivergent person.
“I wanted to give people opportunities,” she noted. “To me, everyone is of equal importance.”
This culture involves training managers “differently” as Andrea puts it, ensuring that they understand that everyone has their own strengths and challenges, and nurture the former.
She spoke of her own struggles, sharing that her autism means she “cannot cope” with ambiguity - “I need clear instructions.”
Whilst she may experience overwhelm from time to time, Andrea said she can “pull a rabbit out of a hat” if she has time to think about it.
“I am a good problem solver. I think differently to other people.”
During our interview, it was evident how much the Jessops complemented each other, not simply with their similar jovial natures but also in their stark differences, with Mike explaining that he is able to stay collected and level-headed in times of stress.
Their harmonious blend has been the driving force behind the company’s success, with two factories now set up in Devon and future growth anticipated for the future.
“We never thought it would grow this big,” Andrea smiled.