MEMBER STORIES

The father and daughter serving up treats made in Wales and inspired by the Caribbean

Posted: Wed 17th Feb 2021

Charmaine Smikle and her dad Earl are the founders of Earl's Kitchen.

Earl has used his 40 years of experience as a chef to create sauces, chutney and seasoning that he makes in his South Wales home. After growing up in restaurants watching her dad create dishes that customers would travel for miles to taste, Charmaine joined him in the business.

Charmaine shares the inspiring family business story and how, with the help of the Amazon Small Business Accelerator, is now selling Earl's Kitchen products on Amazon's online store.

The free Amazon Small Business Accelerator e-learning programme is advice from more than 30 business experts in 218 bitesize videos.

If you're already an Enterprise Nation member, log-in to your learning dashboard to access the e-learning. If you're not an Enterprise Nation member, you can join the Amazon Small Business Accelerator for free here.

How did you come up with the idea for the business?

Dad has been working as a chef in South Wales since he was 28. He had a few recipes that were really popular wherever he worked, including his Barbados sauce which he thought was one of the things he could sell for people to use at home. However, because of his full time job he didn't have the time to dedicate to it.

One day three years ago while walking around a farmers' market, we had a chat about giving it go and launching a business around gourmet Caribbean food. There are lots of Caribbean street food businesses but we spotted a gap in the market for gourmet products.

How did you turn the idea into a business?

The Welsh government's Business Wales department has a specialist area for developing food businesses. We contacted them to understand everything we needed to do. We were going into it with recipes and solid ideas but without the knowledge about testing, bringing products to market and the regulations we needed to follow.

They put us in touch with food technologists who helped us to create a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan, understand the testing and what we were trying to achieve with the products.

We also worked with a designer on creating the brand. They talked to us about how we saw the business and our values.

How did you start marketing your new business?

We launched at the Royal Welsh Show in 2019. Our stall was near the buyers' lounge so they came to try our products and we also sold lots. That was a great way to test the market.

After that we sold at lots of farmers' markets which was went well but when the first coronavirus lockdown happened, that stopped.

On social media, we encourage people to share images using our products. We get lots of sales from posting user generated content.

How did you deal with the impact of coronavirus on your business?

It was initially a big knock to our business. Being in our second year and finding our feet, we had a lot of events booked which were cancelled overnight. Most of our business was based on word of mouth at face-to-face events so we had to move to concentrate on our online opportunities, fast.

We worked with a digital marketing agency to see what we could do to improve the website and our visibility in search results.

We also offered things we weren't doing previously, such as free local delivery, and we worked with other small, independent companies to create food hampers. That helped to keep our name out there.

Earl's Kitchen

Why did you decide to apply for the Amazon Small Business Accelerator Bootcamp?

The Bootcamp was timely because we were focused on improving our online presence.

I'd heard a lot about the opportunities to sell through Amazon but didn't know how to get started. It seemed like a good way to get a comprehensive overview from experts.

What were the benefits of the Bootcamp?

The Bootcamp highlighted everything I think you should know when starting your business, like the importance of using proper internationally-recognised barcodes, trademarking and the opportunities that they open for your business.

It also had lots of great tips about what makes a good listing on Amazon. It taught me the importance of looking at analytics to seeing what's working with your listing and looking at the listings of other businesses that are selling well on Amazon. You need to be able to articulate your product in a way that people can understand. It can be much easier to say that face-to-face than when you need to write it down.

What actions did you take after the Bootcamp?

I listed our Scotch Bonnet Chilli Chutney and Barbados Vegan Cooking Sauce on Amazon and we've had some sales.

I also applied for the trademark as well as I'm interested in the opportunities that are offered through Brand Registry.

It has been great to be given access to an account manager. The Bootcamp provided a lot of information so it has been good to talk it through.

We launched on Amazon with the images and information that we had at the time but since them we've had some new product images taken and I've spent time comparing listings and been through different iterations of our product descriptions.

I also did a small advertising campaign on Amazon but I've paused it so I can look back and see what worked and what didn't.

I'm also looking at encouraging more customers to leave reviews on Amazon. Our customers already know us through our own website so I'm looking at ways to steer them into posting reviews.

What are your top tips for business success?

Make the most of every opportunity to learn from others. The business community is very supportive and people are always willing to share their learnings to help others.

Get your customers to sing about your products. It's an important part of selling on Amazon and other sales avenues.