Parsons joined the business in January 2020 as marketing communications manager during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As he describes it, induction into the business at this time was a baptism by fire – though the challenge did create a certain sense of thrill, working through the rigmarole of the pandemic.
“It taught me so much about community building, both internally and externally,” he explained.
Fudge Kitchen won The Community Award at the 2024 Food Manufacture Excellence Awards. At the time, Parsons said the secret to the business’s success was ‘putting its money where its mouth is’ – everything they did involved community, in one way or another.
True to their word?
So, are Fudge Kitchen still keeping true to their word?
“Still trying to, slightly even more so,” said Parson. “At the end of 2022, Fudge Kitchen became employee owned and I don’t think you can have more of a sense of internal community than when all of your team members actively benefit from being employed by the business.
“When Siân Holt announced we were becoming employee owned, she mentioned it felt so natural – a business where everyone was responsible for their own areas, everyone is an expert in their own fields and apply that to their everyday work, and bounce off each other.”
He described the act of making the business employee owned as putting its future in the hands of the people who built it.
Building a community
Building the sense of community within the company made it that much easier to expand that ethos to its customer base.
“There’s very little ego in the business, everyone is pulling in the same direction,” Parson added.
Listen to this month’s podcast to learn more about Parson’s journey to becoming Fudge Kitchen MD, as well as his claim to fame as part of world record-breaking Minecraft server.
Meanwhile, last month we checked in with Paul Turton, the CEO of speciality coffee roaster Pact Coffee, for the February edition of the Food Manufacture Podcast.