Robyn Hewson speaks to Kieran Fisher, the founder of fast-growing sports nutrition brand Warrior about new products, growing the business internationally and advice for other entrepreneurs.
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00:00My name's Kieran and I am the founder and managing director of Warrior.
00:14Warrior is one of the fastest growing and largest sports nutrition companies in the UK.
00:19We're now available in over 30 countries around the world.
00:22Our product can be found in Asda, Morrison's, Tesco's, Amazon and elsewhere.
00:27And we have 538,000 registered retail customers on our website as well.
00:34We produce incredible protein bars that are super innovative.
00:37This is our brand new Warrior Creatine Bar.
00:40Each of these bars contains 3g of micronised creatine.
00:44Creatine is good for your muscles, your brain, it even enhances your memory.
00:4920g of protein, which is more than 3 whole eggs.
00:52And low glycemic index carbohydrates from Scottish oats.
00:57It's a fantastic product made right here in Manchester that tastes amazing and helps boost brain and body.
01:02We're famous for our Warrior Cringe Bars.
01:06These are a little bit like a lion bar if you ever had one of those when you were a kid.
01:10They're like a decadent, triple layered, gooey and delicious chocolatey bar.
01:16Inside there's an inner protein dough, drizzled in caramel, crispy bits, chocolates.
01:22And it's just a wonderful treat if you fancy a snack on the go or fancy a proper chocolate bar but wants to be a bit more healthy.
01:29We also do a ton of things like creatine, protein powders, all that sort of stuff.
01:34But it's all designed to bring out your inner warrior.
01:36We all have this little flame in here where we know who we could be.
01:41And what we want to do is turn the gas up on that.
01:44So you live life to the fullest, physically, mentally, and go out there and get it.
01:49Fantastic. And you've had an amazing growth journey so far.
01:52But what's next for Warrior and KBF?
01:54So presently what we're doing is, and this sounds much more boring than the stuff I was talking about before.
02:00Presently what we're doing is we're professionalising the business.
02:02We're bringing in the right team and the right talent to build a proper structure to take us to the next level.
02:08So we've got good distribution in some parts of the Middle East, for example.
02:15We've got getting good distribution within the UK.
02:18What we really needed to focus on in order to take the business to where I feel it could go and the brand to where I feel it could go is capacity distribution and reach.
02:26Now capacity is, I can't sell a tub of protein if I don't have a tub of protein.
02:32So how do I make sure that I have enough capacity to fill demand?
02:36And we mostly did that last year.
02:37So last year we invested about two million pounds in building this new factory.
02:40And our new factory is amazing.
02:42We can produce, we're presently producing 192 bars per minute.
02:47We can produce 21,000 tubs of creatine per shift.
02:51It's all automated lines with twin head depositors, single head depositors, blending at height, separating the mixing from the blending and the weighing and all this sort of stuff.
03:02So it's very, very cool.
03:03And that gives us, if we run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we would have a capacity of about just under 300 million in terms of turnover sales out.
03:11So we've built that capacity element to it.
03:13Now distribution.
03:15I know that consumers love Warrior and given the opportunity to buy Warrior, they'll choose that over any other brand on shelf.
03:22It is the sexiest brand on shelf.
03:24But we're not everywhere.
03:26If you go to, like I know, for example, we're not in Sainsbury's, we're not in Waitrose.
03:29There's a ton of places where we don't have distribution.
03:32We want to achieve the same distribution that you would have for a can of Diet Coke.
03:36So you can go anywhere where you would buy a good snack bar or product or a product that's, you know, healthier snacking product.
03:42And we want to be able to be physically available there because we know that consumers would love it and it would improve their lives.
03:47So enhancing our distribution is what we're presently working on.
03:50And lastly, reach.
03:52We have this incredible e-commerce business where we were one of the largest e-commerce businesses in our sector in the UK.
03:59We're probably the best run of our type in the UK, I'd say.
04:02And to have achieved this independently, because most e-commerce businesses have a positive EBITDA but lose money because customer acquisition is incredibly expensive.
04:11So if you look at a lot of e-commerce businesses, they might have rapid growth, but their real cash flows are down like this.
04:17They might have a positive EBITDA because they're capitalizing and playing accountancy games and stuff.
04:21That's not us.
04:22We're an independent business.
04:23So we've had to eat what we kill.
04:26We run a really, really good e-commerce business, but our e-commerce business presently is just in the UK.
04:30So reach means that where a Warrior customer exists, we can reach them and supply them a product.
04:38So we're looking at internet.
04:39We're presently internationalizing our e-commerce business.
04:42We'll be launching in the EU in December.
04:45We're launching in the UAE online later in December as well.
04:49And that goal is to get that over into the States and over into other areas around the world so that no matter where you are a Warrior, you can have your Warrior ration packs ready in the post.
05:00Amazing.
05:01And then finally, what would you say is kind of your advice for other entrepreneurs and business owners?
05:06Number one, resilience.
05:07Number two, build a team.
05:09When you do build a team, make sure they're doing the right stuff and they're incentivized correctly.
05:15And I guess the number three one is something which is more personal.
05:18It's sort of that my goal with the business has always been to do work I enjoy with people I like.
05:24Life is too short.
05:27Life is really, really, really short.
05:29And it's too short to not want to come into work in the morning.
05:32If you are doing something now where you don't enjoy coming to work, you're not going to enjoy every day.
05:37But if you consistently find it difficult to get up in the morning, you don't really want to come in.
05:42You're doing the wrong thing.
05:45If it's your business and it's you, work out what the errors are and kill off the things that are making your life unpleasant.
05:52Fix it.
05:53No one's going to come to save you.
05:55You are on your own.
05:56If it's your business, it is bloody lonely.
05:58You're on your own.
05:59Fix it.
06:00And if you're in a job, work out, is that you?
06:03Maybe you're lazy.
06:04Maybe you just need to work out how to, you know, something not every day you're going to enjoy.
06:08Or maybe you're not and maybe you're doing the wrong thing and you're trying to put like a square peg in a round hole.
06:14Find the thing you're passionate about.
06:15Go do that.
06:16That's my tips.