UK Food & Drink Success Stories: Q&A with Chris Kong, Co-founder of Better Nature Tempeh & Getting Listed in Tesco
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.
Who is Chris Kong and what’s “Better Nature Tempeh”?
Chris Kong is one of the four co-founders of Better Nature Tempeh. They are taking the plant-based world by storm and launched in Tesco in May of 2023 (find them in your local Tesco). They’ve also gotten listings in Selfridges, Amazon, Mindful Chef, Planet Organic and more.
Wait, what’s tempeh?
“Tempeh is this incredible, naturally nutritious plant-based protein that originated in Indonesia 300 years ago. It's incredibly high in protein and high in fibre. It has this naturally meaty texture, yet it’s completely all-natural and plant-based. A lot of vegetarian and vegans have started to add it to their diets. Guided by our Indonesian roots and tempeh know-how, we’ve become experts at making simple things extraordinarily better… naturally…. we’ve learned to do more with less.”
So how did you start Better Nature Tempeh?
“Better Nature started at university. I met one of my cofounders there, Elin Roberts who was (and remains) a very avid vegan. She ended up vegan-ising me (as well as half of our college!).
I was quite an avid athlete that rowed and boxed at university so when I became vegan, I really struggled finding at my local supermarkets a source of plant-based protein that was all natural, nutritious, and delicious. On one end I found tofus, falafels and then on the other end, ultra-processed meat alternatives. When looking at packaging, I’d turn something over and there’d be a ton of ingredients that I didn’t really recognise or trust. All I wanted was an all-natural, high in protein plant-based product I could eat day-in and day-out.
Then, Dr. Amadeus Driando Ahnan-Winarno entered the chat. He grew up in Indonesia and did his PhD on tempeh fermentation. He’s the first one that introduced me to tempeh and all of the benefits. I went to Indonesia, tried it in the wild, and so to speak fell in love with it. When we came back to the UK and couldn’t find it in stores - we realised there was a major opportunity.
From there, we connected with our fourth co-founder and started driving Better Nature Tempeh to where it is today. It feels really good to have a brand that I’m so passionate and can help make an impact on the planet and on animals. Tackling food and giving people more access to all natural plant-based food was the best way to do that.
How did you go from an idea to an actual product?
100% thanks to Bread & Jam. I’ve been attending Bread & Jam events since the very start of Better Nature back in 2019 before it was a brand and we were pre-launch. I learned a lot, I learned everything thanks to Bread & Jam. We learned how to work with independents & wholesalers from Bread & Jam’s free Socials, their free online webinars called Monday Motivations, and from all of the information sharing at their other events.
We pivoted a bit to D2C during the pandemic and then did some foodservice business as well. We learned the ropes and seriously cannot thank all of the Bread & Jam events and community enough.
What became truly pivotal for us was retailer pitching at the Bread & Jam events like the Festival and Plant Based Summit and exposure to retail buyers at their other events.
How did you get listed in Tesco?
As mentioned above, everything we learned that got us to the listing with Tesco was thanks to Bread & Jam! We were able to apply to pitch the retail giant Tesco at the Bread & Jam Festival. We got selected to pitch and so met the Tesco buyer 1:1 in our 10 minute time slot. After talking with the buyer at the event, we did quite a bit of back and forth with the buyer and finally launched in Tesco across the UK on May 29th 2023. We launched two products/SKUs- our Organic Tempeh in 430 stores and our Curry Tempeh pieces in 280 stores.
Why do you think your pitch was successful?
The number one reason we felt like we were successful was that we were solving a problem for the retailer, and ultimately the consumer. The meat-free space is super oversaturated with lots of meat alternatives, but not necessarily healthier options. Our consumer research data backed up what we had thought - 61% of consumers thought meat-free products were too processed and 84% pf consumers preferred meat-free products that didn’t have any artificial ingredients in them (Mintel, 2021). In our pitching time slot, we were able to share that data, discuss the problem with Tesco, and show them that we were the solution. By focusing on the problem, the solution and showing them how great our product was, Better Nature Tempeh helped sell itself.
The other thing that I think made the difference was that we were able to showcase our track history and that we’ve been able to create products that consumers absolutely love. We worked really hard on our product, our brand, and showcased a lot of our customer reviews (via Trustpilot) in our pitch as well.
Anything surprising about working with Tesco you weren’t expecting?
We thought working with the retail giant Tesco would be very difficult, but Tesco has been super supportive! We’re very, very, lucky that we met a phenomenal buyer through Bread & Jam and they get what we’re trying to do. Tempeh is a bit of a niche product and not everyone knows about it, but it’s aligned with what consumers are looking for. Tempeh just needs the backing to grow the awareness of the sub-category of meat-free.
The Tesco onboarding process was longer than we expected and not easy, but once you’ve onboarded, you’ve basically got the products on the shelves. Something we’ve learned at Bread & Jam events is that it’s really important to protect the buyer relationships. You really need to invest in them, stay honest with the buyer, keep them engaged, and keep the buyer on the journey with you. They need to feel and be personally invested in your brand along with you.
What other retailers are you listed in how did you secure those listings?
Better Nature Tempeh is listed in Planet Organic, Selfridges and about 200-300 independent health and food stores across the UK. We’ve been lucky to work with amazing wholesalers (for us, shout-out to CLF and Suma). Again, the main factor has been addressing their consumer needs with our product.
It’s SO hard to get your message across in a way that’s convincing, but also as concise as possible. It takes a lot of work, and you have to do a lot of chasing up. We did that hardwork and we’ve jumped through all of the hoops.
If you think about it, the Planet Organics or the Whole Food Markets of the world aren’t going to get back to you on your first email. If you can skip some steps and apply to retailers at an event like Bread & Jam Festival - GREAT. If not, expect that they might get back to you on a 10th follow-up email. With your reach-out, you need to make sure you’re not annoying them, you don’t give up, and you keep trying. You can’t just email blast them, you need to take them on journey - update them about your progress securing other listings, maybe marketing activity that you’ve run, the performance of past promotional activity, and/or share Trustpilot reviews with them. We also sell some D2C and Amazon so shared reviews from the online stores. It’s hard but the main things we’ve seen success with when reaching out are customer love for our products, that we know what we’re doing, and that we know how to grow these listings if given the opportunity.
Okay, you said you have Bread & Jam to thank for everything but what do you mean?
As you can tell from the above, we seriously wouldn’t be a brand today without the help of Bread & Jam and the knowledge sharing that goes on through their community events. We’ve learned everything through Bread & Jam events and the Foodhub Facebook group. Bread & Jam has been truly, truly pivotal for us and I can honestly say Better Nature Tempeh would not be here today if it weren’t for the support of Bread & Jam. The support of the community, the network of other amazing food & drink founders, the opportunities to meet buyers through pitching at their events like Bread & Jam Fest and every single event I’ve been to, from Workshops to Socials, has just been amazing.
What’s the best Bread & Jam event you’ve been to any why?
You can’t miss the annual Bread & Jam Festival no matter what stage you’re in! We attended the first one we went to in 2019 when we were only 3-4 months old before we had launched our brand. It was in that experience that I learned so, so, so much. Through the content, speakers, and panels I learned so much of how to work with retail buyers, how to enter independent and speciality retailers, and more. We also took advantage of the point of difference (POD POD) booth which really helped us. Hearing from industry icons like brands like Planet Organic and other food & drink success stories was so insightful.
We were also successful in gaining some pitching time slots even though we hadn’t launched yet! Those two days of Bread & Jam Festival were super transformational for us. Even though nothing major came from that first festival, it set the foundation for what was to come.
Any other advice for food & drink entrepreneurs out there?
Make a product that actually serves a real need. The problem you’re trying to solve for needs to be “big enough” not only in market size but also in that it matters. It needs to matter to consumers and that consumers would go out of their way to address it.
Be to open to learning and adapting. The Better Nature brand and products that we launched in Jan 2020 aren’t the ones we originally had when we came up with our idea. The products and the brand have changed a lot over the course of our journey. What we were successful in getting listed in Tesco with are a different rebrand and a different supplier from when we started out due to things we learned along the way. Even though you can make changes on what the market is telling you, STAY CONVINCED ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE DOING.
Be tenacious and don’t give up. It’s incredibly hard to to try and build a brand and try to make a living until you can secure a major retail listing. Keep at it and don’t take it personally if many of the people you reach out to don’t reply. Email buyers back again in a month, and a month after that. Make sure every month your email pops up in their inbox and some day they will notice you! Plus then when you apply to pitch at events like Bread & Jam Fest, your name is familiar to them.
Be sure to ready when a buyer or retailer is ready to listen. Make sure you have a captivating and convincing story to tell. You need a story of how you are addressing a real customer need and a story showcasing why you have customer love.
Product, product, product. Make sure your product absolutely delivers on your brand promise, because if it doesn’t, then there is no business.
