Do we shut up shop on investment until times get better?

John Stapleton, serial entrepreneur, angel investor and speaker, provides smart money strategies for today’s investors.

A fund manager I know well has described the investment market as ‘carnage’. The cost of capital is through the roof and availability is very scarce. The rest of us are seeing this in a variety of ways – start-ups are having a difficult time raising funds (certainly at the inflated valuations they have become recently used to) and more established businesses are shelving plans to invest in growth even when they can demonstrate a tried and tested business model to justify it.

Farmers swap fields for high rises | The Times

‘Did you know’…vertical farming has the potential to safeguard food security?

As food security becomes increasingly unstable, John Stapleton, Chairman of Fischer Farms, explains why vertical farming has the potential to bolster resilience against supply chain shocks, both in the UK and beyond. 

Food security has been under increasing pressure for many years now. In the UK, we heavily rely on imports to feed our nation, as do many other countries and developing regions. But as the population continues to soar, and societal and environmental factors destabilise supply chains, we need to look at new ways of feeding the world to support traditional methods. 

Britain has one of the worst obesity rates in Europe. Why?

What is Vertical Farming?

What is Vertical Farming?

The term “vertical farming” covers a range of quite similar technologies. Ultimately, vertical farming is all about growing plants indoors under controlled/ optimised conditions, under lights. The most popular and well-known application is based on a “hydroponic” system where nutrients are conveyed through water to the plants’ roots. I like to call vertical farming a “5-Star wellness hotel for plants”. Conditions are optimised for nature to perform at its best and for plants to grow unhindered (by e.g. poor weather conditions, pests or animals).

What is Fischer Farms?

Fischer Farms is a food company where we design our own agriculture technology solutions to optimise hydroponic methods of growing plants indoors. Presently we grow leafy green salad and herbs and our ambition is to grow soft fruit and even high calorific staples like rice, wheat and soy in vertical farm installations, at commercially-viable prices, across the world. 

I am the Chairman of Fischer Farms and we currently have two sites - Lichfield and Norwich. Our Norwich farm is coming on stream in late 2023 and we believe it is the biggest vertical farm in the world (25,000m2, with the capacity to expand to 75,000m2). 

What are the benefits of Vertical Farming?

The benefits of vertical farming are huge. Vertical farming has purpose written all over it. 

Firstly, it is a sustainable message on steroids! Our farms use less than 5% of the water required for traditional farming, need no pesticides, herbicides, or insecticides, and can run on 100% renewable energy (which we’re busy installing). 

The produce we grow is of the highest quality and consistency, staying fresher for longer, helping retailers and consumers significantly reduce food waste.

Vertical farming is a revolutionary technology whose time has come, capable of producing yields 250 times greater than traditional farming, delivering quality produce all year round in an incredibly sustainable way and in an environment unaffected by weather conditions and water availability. 

Vertical farming can be a key flexible resource in establishing food security across the world. We see this not only in a post-Brexit Britain, helping to avoid empty retailer shelves each winter but also contributing to a solution to food scarcity in vulnerable parts of the word already struggling from land erosion, depletion of natural water supplies and the increasing challenges of climate change.  

What’s unique about Fischer farms?

At Fischer Farms we employ scale to deliver accessible unit pricing. We believe the benefits of vertical farming should be available for all. While the product we grow in our vertical farms is of excellent quality and consistency, we don’t believe vertically-farmed products should be premium priced. We build at scale and we invest in automation in order to keep the unit cost low. If we really want to grow high-calorific staples in vertical farms attached to large renewable energy sources across the world, we need to do this in a cost-effective way. 

What does Vertical Farming mean for traditional farmers?

I am a farmer’s son from the west of Ireland, so I have traditional agriculture in my blood. Vertical Farming is not designed to put traditional farmers out of business – certainly that is not our objective at Fischer Farms. There is much that is wrong with the modern agriculture and food industries. I believe vertical farming can be part of the solution to rectify these problems. We want vertical farming to complement traditional farming well into the future.

What does Vertical Farming mean to me?

You can see by the above why I’m involved in vertical farming. It’s hard to not be motivated and excited about all that this breakthrough technology is already delivering – for the consumer, for retailers, for investors and for the planet. I’ve always felt a sense of purpose in any venture I’ve been involved with. I’m hard pressed to name another business which delivers purpose so thoroughly than Fischer Farms.

Funding a business during a cost of living crisis

John Stapleton, serial entrepreneur, angel investor and speaker, provides a reality check for early-stage businesses: how a sober funding market is forcing entrepreneurs to bootstrap.

The dark side of inflated valuations: why raising funds might not be the smartest move

John Stapleton, serial entrepreneur, angel investor and speaker, looks into the fallacy of thinking fundraising is an achievement in entrepreneurship.

Nestlé inflicts yet more wounds on limping plant-based protein category

Food industry analysts suggest more companies are likely to follow Nestlé’s example in reassessing its position in plant-based protein in yet another blow for the category.

The Swiss firm’s plan to withdraw its Garden Gourmet meat-free and Wunda pea-milk brands in the UK and Ireland will no doubt have caused unease amongst proponents of plant-based alternatives. For others, it may open up opportunities in what is an overcrowded and competitive sector, with the established food manufacturers and start-ups battling for shelf space.

Tales from the frontline: John Stapleton | Helm

Thomas Edison claimed failure was “the condiment that gave success its flavour”. For John Stapleton, the failure of one food business certainly adds a twist to his more successful food startups.
 
“You can’t build a career on failure," he says, "but it helps to have experienced it. It makes you better and spurs you to work harder, if nothing else to make sure you never have to experience that feeling again.”
 
Stapleton is regarded as one of the UK’s great food entrepreneurs. He’s built two huge food businesses and is now an adviser and investor to startups. He’s applied new, innovative technology to revolutionise food retail for ever.
 
He recently spoke at a Helm special guest dinner. Helm is a members-only club for the founders of innovative, fast-growth scale-ups worth more than £1m.

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Written in the soup

It’s tempting to see Stapleton’s success as inevitable. But it wasn’t. It all started in a food science laboratory at Reading University in 1987, where he was gradually – if reluctantly - heading towards a life in the lab as an industrial microbiologist. That was before he spent an afternoon in the pub with Andrew Palmer.
 
Palmer was an entrepreneur who came to the University, which is world-renowned for its food science research department, because he had an idea about selling chilled, fresh soup. At the time the options for soup at home came in a tin or you made it from scratch yourself.  Palmer had confidence that a chilled, fresh middle ground would be popular, but he didn’t have a clue how to do it.
 
Enter the young, entrepreneurial food scientist. If it now seems inevitable Stapleton would solve this challenge, the problems and dangers at the time were very real. Supermarkets were concerned this new approach to soup could potentially poison or even kill customers. As Stapleton admits, he didn’t know what he didn’t know when he accepted the challenge to join Palmer.
 
“Ignorance is bliss when you’re innovating. You start to climb this mountain and you’re halfway up before you realise how steep it is.”
 

Professional Speaking Association

How do you give a speech to a bunch of professional speakers? You could hardly imagine a more critical audience. Speaking is what they do for a living, day in, day out. They know all tricks of the trade. I mean, if anyone is going to find you out, it’s these guys. Right?

Well, Vicky O'Farrell (London president) invited me to deliver my keynote at the PSA* London last month. And yes, these guys certainly know a bit about speaking on stage. But I’ve never experienced a crowd who were so supportive. Critical yes, but in a very constructive and supportive way. I think it’s because they know what is involved, how much you need to prepare, to get it just right, which makes them appreciative when you make an effort. (And in fact, you’re always “getting it right”.)

I spoke about Turning Uncertainty into a Competitive Advantage. This is something I like talking about as I can include some themes which I feel passionate about e.g.

• Have the Courage of your Conviction

• Embrace Adversity

• Learn from Failure

• Resilience in Business

I feel all these elements are part of how we can turn the almost unprecedented levels of uncertainty around us at present into an asset which we can use to our advantage.

The feedback I received at the event was very encouraging. One element which appeared to resonate well were the stories I used from outside business. Stories from our childhood are so powerful as they often represent something we learned at an early age and so they leave an indelible mark. The difference is, do we use these lessons? Do we put them to work for us in our business? Or do we feel the only lessons relevant to business are those learned in business?

I enjoyed myself immensely at the event and can’t wait for the next opportunity I’m convinced there is no better audience from which to be critiqued than an audience of fellow-speakers.

What do scale-ups looking for investment need to know going into 2023?

This article is by John Stapleton – entrepreneur and investor. 

This is the time of year when we simultaneously look back and take stock of the year we’ve had and look forward and try to anticipate the year incoming. Mostly, a new year is met with anticipation, often optimism. It’s simply human nature.

Possibly because we’ve now had 3 consecutive years where the sentiment has been “good riddance” to the outgoing year, we’ve become jaded at the prospects of a fourth. In any event, this time, there’s more than enough pessimism to go round.

We’re likely to have a strong Christmas – British retailing is reporting an up-tick in demand (compared to November), but expectations are that this will be significantly reversed in early 2023 as rising cost of living pressures take further hold.

CBI Economist Martin Sartorius believes that any festive cheer will be short-lived. “Retailers are bracing themselves for chill winds that will blow through the sector this winter, with consumer spending set to be hit hard by high inflation.”

This sentiment is affecting the investment community also – particularly investment in early stage businesses or those which have not yet broken even (and need shareholders funds to survive/ fund growth). The pure start-up scene remains interestingly buoyant – due to certain mitigating circumstances. But is interesting to see what is happening to businesses which are still early-stage, but have moved into scale-up mode.

‘Inflation is not just the scourge of Britain’ investor and entrepreneur John Stapleton unpicks the Autumn Statement

This article is by John Stapleton – an entrepreneur and investor

The Autumn Statement is being billed as Austerity Mark II – which it sort of is – but not for a while yet. Jeremy Hunt hopes his plan will stabilise the economy and above all, will be an effective weapon to curb inflation. He’s right to prioritise this ambition – the trouble is, at what cost?

Inflation is not just the scourge of Britain. Food inflation is a particularly good barometer as it is mercilessly transparent and immediate. Margins in the food industry are already quite slim and the supply base has little room to manoeuvre, resulting in prices being passed on more readily and rapidly (to retailers and to consumers) than in many other sectors.

Hardly a week goes by without staggering inflation figures emerging across a range of countries. In Germany, inflation has reached its highest level in thirty years. Food prices have risen 18.7% year on year. The US saw its consumer price index for food jump 11.2% in September, compared to a year ago. In Ireland, inflation rates hit record highs – up 12.4% with many staples increasing by 28%, year on year. This is eye-watering stuff.

Fischer Farms widens recruitment ahead of major vertical farm

Fischer Farms has announced plans to recruit 27 people in Norfolk ahead of the opening of what it claims to be the “world’s largest vertical farm”.

The 250,000m2 vertical farm is now complete with the office facility fully operational.

The company has already recruited ten new team members to the site, bolstering its senior management, technical and operational teams.

Why UK snack makers are persisting with non-HFSS drive | Andy Coyne

Despite the cost-of-living crisis and UK government delaying some new rules, manufacturers and consultants believe it’s still worth investing in better-for-you snacks.

It starts with Action : How to face uncertainity and develop courage with John Stapleton

John has created and grown a few successful consumer-led businesses over the last 35 years, both in the UK and the USA. He has learned hugely from both successes and failures and talks passionately and honestly about both. Having exited his third business, John now actively manages an Investor/Non-Executive Director portfolio, delivering value-added business growth advice, guidance and mentoring to businesses in early-stage and scale-up phase.

UK vertical farm firm eyes Ireland for expansion after raising funds

Vertical farming requires up to 98pc less water than conventional growing methods and does not use insecticides, pesticides, or herbicides.

Fischer Farms, a UK-based vertical farming firm chaired by Irish food entrepreneur and investor John Stapleton, is looking to several countries including Ireland for potential future expansion. Vertical farming is where crops are stacked in layers.

Stapleton sold the New Covent Garden Soup company in 1998 and then later sold children’s food firm Little Dish in 2017. 

The Future of Food: Startup Nation Podcast

There are huge changes and innovations in the food space in terms of what we eat and how that food is produced for example, lab grown meat, insects in our diet, personalisation in health and nutrition and the demise of our supermarkets to be replaced by farm to fork preferences.

We are also  seeing big innovations in the world of packaging, storage and waste disposal and it is clear that as consumers become increasingly aware of the impact their actions have on the environment.

This week, we are joined by - 

• Alison Cowzer - Co - founder of East Coast Bakehouse and Dragon on RTÉ's Dragon's Den

• John Stapleton - The 'Authentic Entrepreneur'​

• Alison Stroh - Co - founder of Dr. Coy's Health Food

John Stapleton is Magnified: with Matt Cooper

John Stapleton has created and grown food business in the UK and US and has learned from Success and failure. Now a business mentor, he talks to Matt about getting the bits into fresh soup, why he's investing in vertical farming and how Ireland could become a bigger player in the food industry.

Vertical farming can boost the UK’s food security as global supply chains struggle

We are in a global food crisis. Food security is under increasing pressure as globalised supply chain interdependencies unravel. From the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the ongoing climate crisis, the impact is being felt across Europe and is extending across the globe. Add to this the cross-border challenges of Brexit, the recent lorry driver strikes in Spain, non-availability of labour and supply chain disruption, and it’s clear the food industry is facing significant challenges, with no immediate solution in sight.

Untold Podcast

John Stapleton needs no introduction in the UK food and beverage industry. He is a founder, mentor and investor who has definitely been there and done that. In this episode we catch up with him about his experiences with Glencoe Foods Inc. John speaks candidly about the decisions leading to closing it down and the life lessons he gained from it.John Stapleton is a founder member of the start-up team that set up and built New Covent Garden Soup Co Ltd. (1987), which pioneered and grew the fresh soup category in the UK. They sold The New Covent Garden Soup Co in 1998 to The Daniels Group (later Hain-Daniels). He then co-founded Glencoe Foods Inc., tasked with bringing the fresh soup concept to the US.

In 2005, John co-founded Little Dish, which supplies healthy, natural and convenient meals and snacks to children over one year old. Little Dish created the chilled toddler food category, developing full UK retailer distribution and became the go-to brand in fresh toddler food and healthy snacks. He exited Little Dish in 2017 to a US-based private equity firm.

John now provides business growth advice and mentorship to growing businesses. He actively manages an investor/Non-Executive Director portfolio contributing value-added business growth advice, guidance and mentoring to business owners.