Susie Willis started her organic baby food company, Plum Baby, when she realised that conventional baby food provided little nutritional value for her third baby, Minky, now four. The idea was to give parents time off cooking so they could bond with their babies, while giving the babies essential nutrition. “Babies need to enjoy their food – all those positives associated with parenthood and bringing up baby need to be pleasurable.”

Having previously run a cookery school, as well as working in marketing and even as a PA to Jeffrey Archer, Willis was no stranger to business. Willis’ big break came after months of research and development in 2005, when she managed to secure a meeting with a buyer for Sainsbury’s through a brand consultant she knew. Her timing couldn’t have been better: Sainsbury’s were looking to replace their own-brand baby food. Contracts with the ‘big four’ supermarkets, as well as Waitrose, Booths and Wholefoods Market, followed.

www.plum-baby.co.uk