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Charlie and his brother Harry are trying to revolutionise the way we see and eat ice cream. Wouldn’t it be great if you could enjoy the delicious taste of ice cream without any guilt or worry that you are eating unhealthily? What if I said that eating it would actually be good for you? Yep, the day is here. Ice cream lovers, you can finally indulge in a tub and feel good about yourself. Take a look at the interview that we did with Charlie below.
How did you and your brother come up with the idea for Oppo?
In 2011 my brother Harry and I travelled to Brazil to kite buggy 1000km along the North East coast. It’s one of the windiest places in the world, we had never done the sport before and no one had attempted to kite that distance without vehicle support. But we secured sponsorship from equipment companies, raised some money for a homeless charity and did it anyway - www.kitebuggyadventure.com
The adventure wasn’t without mishaps (turns out Brazil isn’t just one long beach), but along the way we came across a berry popular with locals and surfers called Acai. It’s bright purple and when prepared looks and tastes like a thick smoothie. It’s super healthy, rich in antioxidants and kept us going through some days when we walked over thirty miles dragging 75kg buggies in the heat.
We couldn’t help but think whether we could bring a product that genuinely tasted amazing and was super healthy at the same time back to England. So being the slightly more opportunistic and risk loving younger brother, I soon left my job and started working out how to do it.
I eventually landed on ice cream. Completely natural ice cream, with no unhealthy sugar, dairy fat or additives. I sourced super nutrient ingredients from around the world (including Acai) to add an exotic twist to conventional ice cream flavours and give real health benefits – making it a super nutrient ice cream with the taste and mouth-feel of traditional dairy ice cream.
Peppermint oil tasting!
I then needed some tubs to put the wondrous stuff in and a name. For this I approached Landor Associates, a branding company based in London Bridge who usually manage brands such as Smirnoff, BP, Proctor and Gamble… and now Oppo. The Oppo brand was born.
It was about this time that Harry agreed he rather liked the idea, and now looks after our marketing and operations whilst working full time to pay the mortgage for his Brixton flat (and enable me to continue residence on his sofa - much obliged!) We now have a team of around 6 people.
There are many reasons why small food start-ups decide to initially sell at food markets, before gradually scaling up to multi-nationals many years later; however we can’t do that and don’t want to. We are hoping to have the multi-nationals as our initial customers. Bold move!
We’re therefore spending a lot of time perfecting the product, arranging distribution networks, meeting with retailers, and working out how we will communicate the product. All enormous fun. There’s nothing like the feeling of seeing the business develop day by day. We hope to be stocked by February, details of which will be on our website, facebook group and twitter beforehand.
Where do you see this journey leading to?
Pitching to Sainsbury’s and a room full of food entrepreneurs
We are hoping to create a brand synonymous with making the indulgent healthy. We see no need why the most indulgent and tasty foods can’t also be the healthiest. There is no need to put additives, artificial ingredients, sugar etc in our food. So we won’t. For example chocolate – the cacao pod is one of the most nutritious whole foods on the planet, but the processes employed to turn it into chocolate means chocolate is unhealthy. Why can’t we make a healthy chocolate, or alcohol, or crisps? But we’re focusing on ice cream first!
Is this the first entrepreneurial venture you have taken?
Sort of. I’ve only just turned 24 so this is only my second ‘proper’ job. Previous to this I worked for the drinks giant Diageo. However my first entrepreneurial venture was aged 7 or 8 when Pokémon cards were around – I used to ask for the poor cards none of my friends wanted to keep, and trade them up and up until I had a pack worth selling back to my friends.
Between the ages of 13 and 15 my school desk was a tuck shop. I’d buy sweets and soft drinks in bulk and sell them to other pupils at a mark-up. Dad then taught me how to use excel, so I had a detailed excel spreadsheet of every sale, profit margin etc! After I passed my driving test I ran a fast food delivery service collecting and delivering orders to pupils at school. At uni my team and I got into the final of ‘The York Apprentice’, and I ran a society taking students on trips abroad. So no, I’ve always had little projects!
It all seems too good to be true, can I really enjoy a tub of ice cream that is healthy for me?
YES! We have removed all ingredients negative for one’s health (dairy fat, sugar etc) and replaced them with ingredients beneficial for your health. So dairy fat has been replaced with virgin coconut oil (the healthiest fat on the planet), sugar with stevia
(south American plant extract) etc. Each flavour is boosted with various superfoods – acai, baobab, spirulina, manuka honey etc. We have four flavours: Chocolate and Acai, Madagascan Vanilla and Baobab, Mint Choc Chip with Spirulina, and Manuka 10+ honey and Ginger.
Our ice cream contains very low calories or carbs, no artificial ingredients, only good fats, and absolutely no sugar. The calories aren’t ‘empty’ calories – they’re there because they‘re good for you, and they taste great!
Do you think the move towards healthy eating will see more alternatives such as yours?
Absolutely - this move is massively on trend. Frozen yoghurt instead of ice cream, coconut water instead of traditional electrolyte sports drinks, muesli based cereals instead of sugary alternatives… Even Coca-Cola is considering using Stevia in their drinks instead of aspartame. Consumers want to know what is in their food, gone are the days of unnecessary E numbers and sugar being willingly consumed. Shoppers aren’t willing to compromise on taste or health these days, and nor should they!
Finally, where and when will people be able to get their hands on a tub of Oppo?
We are on track to launch this February into various supermarkets, and independent health food stores. When we know more we’ll be posting on our website and social media pages so please follow us and we’ll keep you informed of competitions, listings etc! www.facebook.com/oppoicecream, Twitter.com/oppoicecream, and www.oppoicecream.co.uk
We wish the Thuiller brothers all the best with their venture and we cannot wait to try some ice cream when they launch.
