I was rejected by Man City & worked in greasy spoon serving rich pals fry-ups – but now I own a £20m soup empire
WHEN his dreams of being a sports star were dashed, after multiple rejections and a serious injury, Paul Brown was at a loss for what to do with his life.
He could never have believed he’d be making £20 million a year, owning the fastest-growing fresh soup brand in the UK, BOL Foods.
As a teen, millionaire business owner Paul, 44, played for Manchester City‘s under-16 team – despite being a fan of Manchester United.
He then joined Glossop North End, where he played semi-professional, but “didn’t make it, like a lot of people in Manchester“.
“I class myself as a professional failed sportsman,” he laughs. “My passion growing up was always to try and make it in the world of sport.”
After football, while studying at Brunel University, Paul “tried and failed” Rugby Union.
“I wasn’t even close to being good enough at that,” he says.
Aged 21, Paul dropped out of uni, and started working as a snowboard instructor in Mammoth Mountain, California.
But, while there, Paul “nearly killed himself” in an accident, breaking his right wrist and many other bones in his body.
He spent months in treatment over in the States, before making his way back to his hometown, and venturing into his second passion of food.
Having grown up around his mum working in catering and his dad, who opened Manchester’s first ever wine bar, the food and drink industry was a natural next-step for Paul.
“My dad came down from Glasgow and was a bit of an entrepreneur,” Paul says. “So the food and drink scene, and being involved in that as a child, was always something I understood and was quite excited about.
It was also having watched them work hard, encouraging him and his two brothers to start working from the age of 10, that motivated him.
Paul says: “I won the parent lottery, so I had incredible parents that sacrificed so much for me and work ridiculously hard.
“Myself and my brothers had a really great upbringing, so for me motivation comes from trying to make them proud.
“The original passion was to be paid to play sport, like it is for most young people, but then I realised that actually being an entrepreneur was something I really, really wanted to do.”
FRYING BACON FOR RICH MATES
He wrote a business plan for a healthy food business, but struggled to make a go of it at first, and began working as a grill chef, while “trying to get it off the ground”.
Paul recalls: “I was working in a pretty crappy cafe, making bacon and eggs for people and quite a lot of people who came into the cafe were mates of mine, in suits, earning a shed-load more money than me.
“I’ve got to admit, at the time, I was thinking ‘I’m in my early 20s I thought I’d be playing for Man United, and this is really not going well, flipping burgers and making breakfast for my mates’.
“It was a low moment, but I used that to help propel me to where I am now.”
“When you’ve got a dream, you need to work the grind. It’s all part of that process.“
STARTING AT INNOCENT
Paul went on to join Innocent Drinks in 2001 as a van driver, just as the company was starting up.
“There were just a handful of people there at the time,” he said. “I only thought I’d be there for a couple of years, learn the ropes and do my own thing.”
Paul actually ended up working there for 14 years, rising to become the director of the brand’s food division, creating the salad pots the company used to sell.
He left after it became clear that Coca-Cola, who bought Innocent in 2013 for £30 million, were focusing on the drinks side of the business.
“I knew it was time to start my own thing then,” he says.
And in April 2015, Paul launched BOL, selling healthy on-the-go meals.
“I was travelling a lot from Manchester to London and realised that if you wanted a healthy food product, there weren’t that many options,” he says. “So Bol was set up to make it easy for busy people to eat well.”
To start, Paul had £500,000 of capital, which included investment from the three founders of Innocent, Richard Reed, Adam Balon and Jon Wright, who he calls “mentors and inspirations”.
BOL in numbers
Started in 2015 with £500,000
Won New Business of the Year in 2016
Went 100% plant-based in 2017 and revenue dropped from £6 million to £3 million
Power Soups sold 90% more year-on-year in 2023, making them the fastest growing fresh soup
Sold £15 million in 2023 – meaning the company has grown five times bigger in seven years
But it was far from easy at first.
He says: “I was running out of finance a little earlier than I thought, in the early days.
“It’s quite a weird thing, at the beginning, because you’re not used to asking for money from people, so raising the finance and the speed at which it goes, your budget is going to last a certain amount of time, but everything ends up costing more. It’s kind of like developing your house.
“Personally, I’m much more comfortable asking people for money now than I was back then
“I thought, if you can’t self-finance your start-up, which I couldn’t do, you’re kind of going cap in hand to people.
“But I changed my mindset now where I think it’s an opportunity and I’m almost making love to the person who’s investing in the brand.”
SOUP SUCCESS
BOL hit shelves across supermarkets like Tesco and Sainsbury’s almost immediately, and won the award for New Business of the Year at the 2016 National Business Awards.
However, the next year, Paul made the decision to make the company completely vegan, after watching the documentary Cowspiracy .
This strategic decision cut BOL’s revenue from £6 million to £3million.
But, seven years later, the company has grown exponentially and has made £20 million in the last year, with its biggest revenue being the Power Soups.
“Last year was our biggest year,” he says. “We did just shy of 15 million, and we’re the fastest growing fresh soup brand in the UK.
“This year should bring us through the 20 million mark in terms of revenue.”
Paul’s dreams for BOL are to be making over £100million in sales, within the next five years, and has recently launched Power Shakes, which he’s hoping will help with this plan.
The drinks are 100 per cent nutritionally complete meals in a ready-to-drink bottle, “perfect for breakfast on the move”.
Paul finishes: “It’s been nine years, but I feel like we’re only just getting started.
“I’d like to think the universe will deliver us a little bit more love over the next few years as a whole species.
“So we’ve got a long, long way to go yet.”