Mark Cuddigan, pictured at a This Super Superfoods launch, has been inspired by author David Marquet. ·Joe Short
Mark Cuddigan has been in his office for five hours and has yet to eat as he finally tucks into a lunchtime vegan sandwich. Eighteen months into his role as CEO at This, the plant-based alternative meat producer, Cuddigan, who is neither vegan nor vegetarian, sees himself as the ideal customer.
“I am passionate about people using business as a force for good,” he says. “If we want to change what we eat for the benefit of animals and the environment, it’s the flexitarians like me. And I’ve completely changed what I eat since I joined.”
We are speaking following the launch of This’s new plant-based ‘Super Superfood’ range, with more protein than tofu, high in fibre, minimally processed and one of your five a day.
Cuddigan hails the product as “a genuine, huge innovation” following successful trials to 500 scientists, plant-based specialists and nutritionists in The Hague.
It was several years in the making and Cuddigan is quick to point to the marketing nous of Andy Shovel for the trailblazing.
This has enriched offering with new format plant-based protein ‘Super Superfood’.
Cuddigan was previously CEO of kids food brand Ella’s Kitchen for six years and drove revenue from £41m to £100m before replacing dynamic co-founders Shovel and Pete Sharman at This, who had been co-CEOs since they launched the business in 2019.
In an interview with Yahoo Finance UK in 2023, Shovel said that This had built its community “by entertaining and surprising” thanks to guerilla marketing stunts. That philosophy shows no sign of abating with Cuddigan at the helm.
“We’re quite a cheeky brand, but we want to be authentic at the same time,” he says. “What we’re doing is quite a serious subject, especially for Pete and Andy who were both vegans, but we try to do it in a funny way which no one else is doing.”
Cuddigan had been at Ella’s Kitchen for 12 years in all, winning 50 awards during his time and, four years running, a Sunday Times top 100 company to work for.
He says his move to the food tech innovator was three-fold: the one mile walk with his dog from home to office across London’s Ravenscourt Park, the need to become a B Corp and creating a culture “where people absolutely love coming to work.”
“When people leave here for whatever reason I want them to leave changed and demand more from wherever they’re going,” he adds.
Mark Cuddigan, pictured, has been inspired by former naval officer and author David Marquet. ·Joe Short
This stems from his time at Ella’s Kitchen where he made a vow to himself and his team that he wouldn’t make another single decision. It’s also clear that best-selling leadership book Turn the Ship Around, which tells the story of a naval officer in charge of a US nuclear submarine, changed his outlook.
“I was inspired by David Marquet, who I got to know really quite well,” says Cuddigan.
“He’d never set foot on this type of submarine before. So he ripped up the naval rule book and did things differently. He turned the lowest-performing sub in the entire US Navy to the best.
“He talks about how in every other submarine there was one person making every single decision. All of his sailors who were experts in all of their areas were actively making their own decisions every day with each other. So he goes, ‘I didn’t have to tell them when we were up close to the enemy because they knew.’”
Plant-based meat alternative This employs over 50 people in London. ·Martin Behrman(Behrman Media)
I ask Cuddigan whether he would have read the book when he left university as a qualified tennis coach and semi-professional DJ, before investing in a nuts and snacks brand. “I didn’t know what I was capable of and didn’t believe in myself,” he admits.
Cuddigan is now setting his sights on turning a profit at a company which employs over 50 staff and has been historically loss-making. This has now reduced its product offering from over 100 to more than 40 and has stopped selling in the Netherlands to focus on its margins in the UK.
Last year, This achieved its first positive gross profit of £2.2m, turnover grew to £18.3m and halved its operating losses.
Cuddigan, who is still nibbling on his vegan sandwich, then returns to Marquet’s turnaround story at the helm of his submarine.
“If you’ve got one person making all these decisions, you’re just going to make a mistake and forget something. In essence, he had created a whole generation of leaders,” he says.
“I came to This to build up this culture where everybody’s making these decisions. It’s the single biggest thing that will determine whether we’re going to be successful as a business.”
Leadership
“Growing up, we used to go skiing as our one holiday abroad every year. I remember one day we got to the end of the day and I said to my dad, ‘I’m so pleased, I’m the only person in the family who didn’t fall over today.’
This has created realistic meat-alternatives since being formed in 2019.
Without missing a beat, he just turned and simply said, ‘That’s because you didn’t try harder.’ I remember being absolutely crestfallen, but much later I understood that by falling over and getting back up I learned more.
I’ve taken that into my management style, by taking a step back, and realising that we’re never going to be successful if we don’t allow people to make mistakes.”
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