WOMEN'S DAY: A spotlight on women-led Ludlow business What A Pickle!

Q: What was your inspiration in founding What A Pickle?

A: Camilla: I loved visiting Ludlow Food Festival right from the very first one and always thought how I would love to be one of those local food businesses!  Once I had started to produce my first product Tomato Chilli Jam it was my focus to be one of those stalls!  The energy that is present at every festival is like no other and it truly is one of our favourite times of the year.

Q: What have been your biggest challenges in business? 

A: Camilla: Understanding that competition is incredibly healthy and keeping focused on our mission as a business.  There will always be another company that you think is doing something similar – I used to get very worried about this – I now realise that whilst the product is incredibly important it is also the service and relationship that you provide your customers with that is so very vital. 

A: Emma: Returning to the workplace after taking time off to bring up my daughters was hard as I lost a lot of self confidence in the ‘grown up’ work environment.  I initially took on small part time jobs and as my confidence grew I took on jobs that carried more responsibility and my confidence returned, although it was, at times, a painfully slow process

Q:Have you noticed any gender bias while starting or growing your business? 

A: Camilla: None at all, although I do think that women thrive particularly well in the food world.

A: Emma: No, the food industry is very well represented across the genders and I have always felt very comfortable working within the industry

Q:How did Covid impact your business? 

A: Camilla: Covid impacted What A Pickle! in a good way.  For 2 reasons, the first being that it enabled me to totally relook and focus on the business’s direction.  I was unable to travel anywhere and the day of zoom calls was born and stopped a lot of unnecessary travel.  The second was that during the Covid times people focused on food and our online sales picked up enormously, I had time to develop new products which massively enhanced our overall offering.

A: Emma: I felt our industry adapted very well during Covid and we benefitted from the national demand in good locally produced product that customers were looking for.  With regards to turnover Covid had a positive impact. 

Q:What have been your biggest successes? What achievements are you most proud of? 

A: Camilla: I definitely think Emma’s and my partnership has been the best success and one I am incredibly proud of.  We work well together because we both are determined and not afraid of hard work.  I think together we can push on through a tough day through our own grit and determination – I am thinking at the end of 5 days at the NEC for The Good Food Show when it is hard to describe the level of exhaustion that hits you just before you pack up………we keep each other going and battle on and still manage to smile and laugh when you then drive on to the motorway and promptly end up in massive hold up for another couple of hours!

What A Pickle! also acquired another business in October 2023. Cheese Nibbles  this has been the most incredible addition and opened up some very good opportunities for both sides of the business.

A: Emma: Camilla and I have been friends for 14 years and I joined What A Pickle! 8 years ago, the fact that we are still friends is quite remarkable and is testament to our successful business working model!  We have grown to appreciate each others strengths and weaknesses and, thankfully most of the time, they compliment each other!

 Q:What are your favourite products in the What A Pickle range?

 A: Camilla: It does change but I have to champion and can never be without our Original Tomato Chilli Jam, it is good with so much……..I hate wasting food and it is the ideal thing to have always on hand to reinvent last nights supper leftovers!

A: Emma: This changes seasonally but currently I am very excited about our new Tartare & Dill Sauce as I eat a lot of fish and this just gives my sometimes bland cooking the perfect zing!

Q:Do you have daughters? What advice would you give them or young women coming to start a business?

A: Camilla: I have 3 children and my youngest is my daughter Tilly.  She has seen me running my business for the majority of her life and knows that it takes determination and stickability.  My advice to any young women starting their own business would be exactly as I have said – you have to be determined and you have to be prepared to put in huge amounts of time.  You also have to understand that you will not always get it right first time round and when you come across a hurdle or you get in wrong you must address it, and learn from these experiences. I often say that in order to get things right your do occasionally have to get it wrong.

A: Emma: I have 3 daughters who all have very different ambitions and my advice would be that the most important attribute they would need to start their own business is passion.  I would be fully supportive in their endeavour and offer advice only when asked! 

Q: What’s next for What A Pickle? 

A: Camilla: We are currently working on our new launches for this year.   We will never over develop in any one category but love dreaming up products that will appeal to our customer base, also if we are asked enough times for a particular thing we do act on it………the clue is in our name!

A: Emma: We are always throwing new ideas into the mix but it has to fit into our ethos and branding before it gets the go ahead, who knows what will be next – watch this space!

Q: What are your business growth plans for the future?

A: Camilla: Every month we strive to be better than the same month the previous year – we have exciting plans for year ahead to keep this premise going.  

A: Emma: we are always striving to grow our business and with the addition of Cheese Nibbles to the range has opened a completely new sales avenue in the hospitality sector and I am looking forward to the challenge of breaking into this market

Q: Are you exhibiting at Ludlow Spring Festival and/or Ludlow Food Festival this year? What do you enjoy about being an exhibitor? 

A: Camilla: We love exhibiting at the Ludlow Festivals – often we try and time a new soft launch to be at the same time, this way we can see first hand the reactions of the enthusiastic foodie visitors, we can listen to the feedback and adjust things if necessary, this is totally invaluable to us.

A: Emma: We will be exhibiting at the LFF, we are very proud to be associated with the Ludlow Food community, not only is it very supportive but we are very proud to be seen alongside such a great range of top quality food products.

Find out more at what-a-pickle.com.