She Couldn't Buy It, So She Built It: Borough Broth's Ros Heathcote

Ros Heathcote founded Borough Broth in 2015 with no food industry background, no manufacturing experience and no contacts - just a gut health problem, a systems-thinking brain, and a butcher who was paying to throw his bones away. Within a year, she had a Selfridges listing. Today Borough Broth is stocked in Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Ocado, Whole Foods, Planet Organic, Abel & Cole and more, and has just completed a raise with Piper Private Equity.

This is a candid conversation about what a decade of slow, deliberate building actually looks like, including the moment when it didn't go to plan and Ros felt like "jumping off a building". Listen to find out:

• Why Ros founded Borough Broth despite having no food industry experience, but with key skills and strengths.
• How her journey began as part of a personal health regimen and how it became a business.
• The transition and challenges of scaling from small, shared kitchen to a larger industrial environment.
• The importance of staying on top of financials and building investor relationships.
• How she runs Borough Broth, the transition to an SLT and the demands on a founder as the business grows up.

Chapters:

01:34 — Origin story: gut health, a dismissive GP, and butcher's waste bins

05:12 — From IT consultant to food founder

06:44 — Early growth: organic beginnings, Selfridges in year one

09:15 — How the Ocado relationship started

12:20 — Raising with Piper Private Equity: how it actually happened

14:31 — Is broth a one-trick pony? The frozen cube launch

19:04 — From solo founder to SLTs, and how Ros structures her week

21:48 — Goal setting, board meetings and KPIs post-raise

23:20 — The EOS model: Visionary vs Integrator

30:22 — Burnout, Long Covid, and the retailer crisis that risked everything

33:10 — Asana, founder podcasts, and how LinkedIn misleads

35:46 — Quickfire questions

 

Links and Resources

Connect with Ros on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosheathcote/

Find out more about Borough Broth, find stockists and buy online:
https://boroughbroth.co.uk/

New Frozen Beef Bone Broth Cubes available on Ocado:
https://www.ocado.com/products/borough-broth-organic-frozen-beef-bone-broth-cubes/683981011 

Register for IFE, March 30-April 1, where Ros and Karen will be speaking:
https://www.ife.co.uk/ 

 

--

Ever wondered why sometimes achieving goals is effortless and other times, it feels like pushing water uphill? Get your Friday Accelerator scorecard to find out why. Answer ten questions about your approach to work, goals and success, to access your personalised report and action list. Go to friday-accelerator.scoreapp.com now.

If you want a regular dose of inspiration and impetus for growth, resilience and success, subscribe to The Friday Accelerator wherever you get your podcasts - and why not leave a review too. 

If you want to accelerate your personal and business performance, you can book at discovery call at https://calendly.com/buyerology/friday-accelerator-1-1