The company that turned a milk round into a £250m business
Plus, OpenAI testing AI-powered search feature, THG slashing more jobs, UK drivers still paying too much for fuel and your Friday pick-me-up
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Remember when Boris Johnson walked into a fridge to get away from TV cameras in 2019? That was a Modern Milkman fridge. The company recently ranked eighth in the FT 1000 list of Europe’s fastest-growing companies and its leader is not a stereotypical tech entrepreneur.
With reports today of the chancellor revealing a £20bn “black hole” in public finances, companies like Modern Milkman are exactly what the country needs to be producing. Simon Mellin’s journey began in a farming family in Pendle, Lancashire, where he started working in the family butcher shop and launched his first business at 13. With minimal formal education, his curiosity and problem-solving skills fuelled his entrepreneurial spirit.
This spirit led him to create a number of companies, including free-range chicken farm company Roaming Roosters and Grassroots Wholesale Foods, which specialised in packing food for online retailers.
With valuable experience gained during those ventures, the inspiration for his latest venture came from watching an episode of Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II. Mellin co-founded Modern Milkman in 2018 with a mission to reduce plastic waste and promote sustainable shopping.
The company’s innovative approach includes an app for ordering milk and other products in reusable bottles, supporting small-basket and high-frequency deliveries. Its rapid growth was boosted by direct sales and a heightened focus on sustainability during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Now headquartered in Manchester, Modern Milkman has raised around £50m in investment and delivers 300,000 orders weekly in the UK. Its growth has been remarkable, reporting pre-tax losses of £23m in 2022 and increasing turnover by 84 per cent to £45.5m in the same year.
This is an inspirational story of a successful and fast-growing UK business and a leader who is happy to share his faults. You can read the full story here.
Business Question
When was the Bank of England founded?
A. 1599
B. 1694
C. 1789
D. 1801
The answer can be found at the bottom of the page.
Business in Brief
Everything you need to know today
1. France’s rail network has been hit by a series of “malicious acts” that have damaged its high-speed lines and are causing severe disruptions to services in the west, north and east – including the Eurostar. Travellers are being asked to delay their trips if possible, with warnings there will be disruption across the weekend. It comes just hours before the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony, which is due to take place in Paris this evening. You can read more here.
2. OpenAI is testing a new service called SearchGPT, an AI-powered search feature it eventually plans to integrate with its generative AI tool ChatGPT. The prototype is currently available to a small group of testers and publishers, who will provide feedback before a wider launch. OpenAI has a number of licensing deals with news publishers and says its search tool is designed to link users and publishers by “prominently citing and linking to them. You can read more here.
3. The e-commerce company THG is cutting a further 171 jobs across its business, the latest in a wave of redundancies that have reduced its workforce by almost a third over the past two years. THG, which owns brands including Lookfantastic and Myprotein, acknowledged it was a “difficult time” in a memo seen by the Financial Times. It is also insisting that all employees attend the office five days a week from August 19. You can read more here.
4. Private equity firm Apollo is to buy the parcel delivery company Evri, which used to be called Hermes, in a deal worth £2.7bn. Apollo is buying the company from another private equity firm, Advent International, which acquired Evri in 2020 for €1bn (£840m). Evri delivers around 720 million parcels a year. You can read more here.
5. The UK’s competition watchdog has ruled that drivers are still paying too much for fuel, with high prices costing motorists £1.6bn last year. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that the profit margin on fuel on supermarkets has doubled since 2019 amid less competition. “When it comes to road fuel, the simple answer is that drivers are still paying too much,” says CMA CEO Sarah Cardell, speaking on the Today programme. Read more here.
Business Quotes
Inspiration from leaders
“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”
– Phil Jackson
Business Thinker
Ideas on the future of business and leadership
1. ✊ How teaming supercharges collaboration ✊
2. ? Taylor Swift and the fallacy plaguing modern economics ?
3. ? A global gold rush is changing sport ?
And finally…
Who doesn’t need a little pick-me-up heading into the weekend?
Twitter account Wolf of X has created a thread of 25 stories to brighten up your Friday. From the superfan who went from being the only fan in his team’s stadium to leading them to their first-ever title (above) to the inspirational nurse who set up the No One Dies Alone programme, it’s well worth a read/watch.
You can find it here.
The answer to today’s Business Question is B. 1694.
