Discover the art of making artisan biscuits at scale with Biscuiteers. Hear from co-founder Harriet Hastings about business advice, marketing strategies, and running a business with her husband. Explore the challenges of COVID-19 and Brexit, as well as their family dynamics and partnerships with famous brands. Dive into their love for imperfect biscuits and the importance of renewable energy to combat climate change.
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Quick takeaways
Building a strong brand image through design and topicality played a key role in Biscuiteers' success.
Adapting to unforeseen circumstances and leveraging opportunities has been essential to Biscuiteers' ongoing success.
Deep dives
Creating a Unique Brand: Biscuiteers' Journey
Harriet Hastings co-founded Biscuiteers with the goal of offering a stylish and personalized gifting solution. By introducing hand-iced biscuits as an alternative to flowers and chocolates, she tapped into a relatively unexplored market niche. The brand grew rapidly, distributing millions of biscuits around the world annually, and expanding to other luxury gifting products. Building a strong brand image by focusing on design and topicality played a key role in their success. Their partnerships with renowned brands like Dior and licensing deals with famous characters such as Beatrix Potter further elevated their brand image.
Overcoming Challenges: COVID-19 and Brexit
Biscuiteers faced significant challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, with increased demand and the need to adapt their manufacturing processes to adhere to safety regulations. Despite these difficulties, they emerged as a larger and more resilient business. Brexit also posed obstacles, particularly in exporting to the EU, but they managed to navigate by focusing on the US market, which offered more straightforward export processes. Adapting to unforeseen circumstances and leveraging available opportunities has been essential to their ongoing success.
The Artistry of Biscuit-making and Being a CEO
Biscuiteers prides itself on the craftsmanship and artistry involved in biscuit-making, considering each biscuit a blank canvas for beautiful designs. Their team of artists meticulously decorates each biscuit, blending a manufacturing business with an artisanal approach. As a CEO, Harriet enjoys the varied responsibilities and challenges that her role entails, from design and manufacturing to marketing and fulfillment. The multi-channel nature of their business, combining high street retail, direct-to-customer sales, business-to-business, and wholesale, keeps the role interesting and allows for continuous learning and adaptation.
We head to the UK factory of Biscuiteers, where millions of biscuits are hand-iced every year, from treats shaped like designer bags to edible versions of favourite cartoon characters.
Harriet Hastings is the co-founder of the company - in this episode, she shares her business advice, explains why marketing is key and talks about running a business with her husband.
Producer / presenter: Sam Everett
(Image: A ballerina biscuit being iced. Credit: BBC)
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