Diet Chef

As new weight loss trials look set to provide evidence of its successful methodology, Diet Chef, having already cracked the German market last year, has projected a 65 percent increase in profits.

“When I think of how far we’ve come as a business over the last three years, it’s fair to say that we wouldn’t have got here as quickly without the help of Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Development International.

They really get where we’re coming from as a business and where we want to be. They’ve helped us access the right support and put us in touch with the right people, all at the right time. That’s what’s made the real difference to our growth.” – Andrew Veitch, Co-founder, Diet Chef

The company

Launched in 2008, Edinburgh-based Diet Chef provides a complete calorie-controlled meal programme delivered directly to the consumer to support weight loss. Since inception, Diet Chef has achieved significant growth year-on-year, with turnover of £9.5 millon in 2010 growing to £16 million forecast for the current year.

The company successfully entered the German market at the end 2010 and new weight loss trials undertaken by Hull University are set to provide evidence for the Diet Chef methodology.

The challenge

“Diet Chef has grown rapidly,” says Co-founder and Head of Marketing, Andrew Veitch, “the company expanded from a handful of people to 50 employees, and our processes – everything from induction to meetings to communication and IT, to branding and packaging – needed to be revised to suit the company we were becoming, while not losing our entrepreneurial culture.

“We also wanted to expand overseas, we had no business outside the UK, and we needed help with that. And, importantly, we wanted to provide research-based evidence that our product was working, which it clearly seems to be.”

The solution

Stewart Wylie, Account Manager, Scottish Enterprise (SE), became involved with the company after about a year of trading: “Diet Chef was very clear about what it wanted, so we looked at the business plan and considered the structure needed to deliver it. An organisational development consultant interviewed a number of people across the company to gain feedback.”

Says Andrew: “We needed to be more formal in our communications and processes. Going from three to fifty staff in three years is pretty rapid and we hadn’t changed our informal ways of communicating. With SE’s help we were able to undertake the steps needed to catch up.

“SE helped with rebranding and marketing – supporting the costs of a branding agency and positioning us as the market leader. Food packaging involves a lot of processes – we have 90 different products and 14 different manufacturers. There were technical issues, environmental considerations, and also considering the international market, legal and labelling issues too.”

The company is now working with an SE Sustainability Specialist to ensure they meet and exceed all guidelines.

Prior to SE’s involvement Diet Chef had no business outside of the UK. “We always believed that Germany would be a substantial market,” says Andrew, “SE helped us steal a march on any competition. Just the market research provided was amazing, it would have been a considerable cost for us to buy in that expertise.”

How SDI helped

“The support needed to crack the German market was very focused, " explains Stewart. "Scottish Development International (SDI), SE’s international trade and investment service, provided mentoring and HR support to help fund a 12-month placement of an international German-speaking manager who helped Diet Chef to research the market, test the product and identify potential opportunities for Diet Chef’s product and services in Germany.

“We also provided, through SDI, funding towards consultancy work for scaling up the German market and providing recommendations for strategic market development in Germany. The scope of the assistance included everything from reviewing the Diet Chef offering to budgeting for 18 months.”

Says Andrew, “a key bit of technical help was research into labelling, we needed to adapt to the German market quickly and cost effectively. With two years continued support from SE and SDI we have a new export market, potentially a multi million euro business for us.”

Diet Chef’s products are undergoing weight loss trials at the University of Hull. The anticipated results hope to confirm Diet Chef as a better route to weight loss than more conventional diets. SE is helping support the research fees and the food costs.

The impact

In just three years Diet Chef has grown to more than 50 employees, and has achieved significant growth year-on-year.

With the support of SE and SDI, Diet Chef was able enter the German market very quickly. It helped the company to get ahead of the competition and to secure a leading position in Germany.

Diet Chef has been trading in Germany for the last eight months and its turnover has been growing steadily, it is projected to reach over £1 million by the end of 2011.

The impact of positive results from the weight loss trials, in an industry purported to be worth £25 million in the UK and doubling annually, will be significant. Diet Chef hopes to see the company increase its sales by 65 percent over the next year and employ a further 12 staff to service the additional demand for its products.

Andrew says: “Despite our talented team and entrepreneurial spirit without SDI and SE support with respect to organisation, marketing, overseas development, we would not have been able to undertake as many initiatives, and to the same level of quality. It has really contributed to our phenomenal growth.”

Discover what support is available to help your company tap into new international markets

Go to the Diet Chef website