UK Food & Drink Success Stories: Q&A with Bath Culture House on Getting Listed in Selfridges

Over the years, Bread & Jam has actively supported the growth of thousands of food startups, from emerging brands getting their first specialty retailer to more established players scoring national supermarket listings. As part of our Success Story series, we’re highlighting fellow challenger brands who have seen some wins, and ask them a few questions.

What’s “Bath Culture House” and What’s Your Story?

Bath Culture House is a range of natural, raw, unpasteurised, small-batch & award-winning kimchi, sauerkraut, kombucha and beet kvass. The founding director, Lucie Cousins has a background in biology and profound interest in all-things-fermentation. After a lot of experience working in the food industry (especially in cheese making), she made the switch from dairy to plants, and Bath Culture House was born.

“Since 2016, we've been making raw and unpasteurised fermented foods, ranging from kimchi to kombucha. All products are handmade by us in the Mendips, North Somerset, from, often, local ingredients.”

How did you start your food & drink entrepreneurship journey?

Lucie began Bath Culture House after becoming dissatisfied with her role in the corporate world. She herself switched to a plant-based diet in 2016, and started creating more plant-based products at home. After some trial and error, she began selling her fermented products at shops in Bath, and Bath Culture House was born 

How did you get listed in Selfridges?

We got listed at Selfridges thanks to Bread & Jam Festival! We applied to pitch after getting tickets to Bread & Jam Fest 2022. We were then notified we were successful and selected to pitch to Selfridges at the Festival. We talked 1:1 with the buyer during our time slot.

After this, we connected with them and they asked us to meet with the buyer again. We then went through a period of working alongside the Selfridges technical team to prove that our products were safe for Selfridges to sell to their customers, and once that was all set, we delivered our first order to Selfridges in April 2023. 

🔥 HOT TIP 🔥Make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to pitch to large retailers at this year’s Bread & Jam Festival (2023). You need to apply and grab your ticket by the deadline on Sunday 9th July 2023 at midnight.

Why do you think you were successful in securing the listing? 

It was great to have a 1:1 chat with the Selfridges buyer through the Bread & Jam Festival. We brought our products to our session, and our products (branding, taste, overall quality) sold themselves! Also the fact that we have everything in place from a technical point of view really helped. Our products are deemed very high risk, so we think having that all sorted was a game-changer.

Anything surprising about being listed and working with Selfridges you weren't expecting?

“To be honest, not really except that we have been thoroughly impressed with their conduct and diligence, from first meeting to first PO.”

Are you listed anywhere else, and how did you get those listings?

We are mostly listed in independent shops across Great British, mainly in Somerset. For 7 years we have slowly added to the shops we supply with different SKUs and generally supply new shops through recommendations and the quality of products we make.

Would you recommend attending Bread & Jam Festival?

"YES! Bread & Jam Festival gave us the invaluable opportunity to meet the buyer whose store we wanted to work with. The time slot you get at the Festival is enough to give an impression of your business and to satisfy them that you are worth considering working with. Paying for a ticket, traveling to London, and applying just for a chance at those 10 minutes 1:1 with a buyer was absolutely worth it.”

Do you have any advice for fellow food & drink entrepreneurs?

Our main advice would be to be patient, spend within your means, and don't listen to everyone that you speak to (filter the bullshit). Finally, don’t forget to focus on the product.

“Bread & Jam Festival gave us the invaluable opportunity to meet the buyer whose store we wanted to work with. The time slot you get at the Festival is enough to give an impression of your business and to satisfy them that you are worth considering working with. Paying for a ticket, traveling to London, and applying just for a chance at those 10 minutes 1:1 with a buyer was absolutely worth it.”

- Michael Duckworth, Bath Culture House