With growing demand, Paleo Ridge soon moved to bigger premises in Waterlooville – today, Paleo Ridge has about 60 products and serves around 4,000 customers each month.
A true family business, Sharon is chairwoman and founder, Aaron is operations manager and sister Ria is despatch & technical manager. The first senior non-family member (though he might as well be family) was Chris Jones, head of supply chain, who used to work with Tyler at a previous business.
Although Sharon and Aaron started the company, Tyler had worked there whenever he was free and when he joined in 2017, he brought with him his business experience – prior to this, he worked in the meat and fresh food industries (‘everything with a short shelf life, from spinach to freshly prepared salads and pasta’) before moving into the supply chain side of things. “It set me in very good stead to moving up – I was in a senior position in the supply chain before I left.”
Once he joined as MD, he sat down and worked out a business plan and structure. Last year, Paleo Ridge achieved growth of 110% and now employs 20 people, and this shows no sign of abating.
Do you walk the walk?
Anyone can talk the talk, but how many actually put into practice what they say, asks Tyler. “We are the only ones who do what we do, and this comes down to our culture,” he said.