News

PRESS RELEASE - October 2007

Nutrichef Wins Entrepreneur Award!

Fast growing healthy eating franchise Nutrichef is celebrating after business leaders named its founder South West Entrepreneur of the Year.

British Chambers of Commerce bestowed the regional honour on Nutrichef’s Barbara Cox after learning of her expertise, popularity and business growth plans.

Nutrichef delivers delicious and healthy meals to customers across the South. In three years it has sold around £1 million worth of products to thousands of customers throughout Dorset, Hampshire, Surrey, Bath and Bristol.

Meals comprise 187 different ingredients (of which 70 are fruit and vegetables) across a 30-day plan. Customers range from athletes such as six-times British Mixed Martial Arts Champion Jeff Lawson to people who simply want to lose weight, eat more healthily and feel more energised.

Nutrichef was founded in Poole, Dorset in September 2004 by nutrition expert Barbara and her husband David. It currently employs 15 staff, recently launched a Bristol franchise and is in the process of expanding with more franchises across the South East.

Barbara said: “It’s great that we won the regional award – now we are going for the national title. You plant all these seeds, watch them grow and now they are starting to flower.”

Barbara was inspired to create the Nutrichef diet after spending eight years in Japan. She was “struck by the delicious flavours and health-inducing properties of Japanese food” – as well as the country’s low levels of obesity, heart disease and cancer.

“I embarked on a course in nutrition and learned about healthy cooking from a top Japanese restaurateur. Keen to pass on what I’d learned during my time in Japan, I made it my mission to develop a meal plan that would incorporate the principles of a Japanese diet, yet appeal to the western palate.”
 
Nutrichef spread the word with a promotional campaign on a local radio station and the controller was so impressed with Barbara’s engaging way of talking about nutrition that she was invited back as a guest every day for three weeks.

“Since then I’ve been a guest on four local radio stations, I’ve given talks to a wide range of audiences from school children to doctors, I’ve written articles for a national cancer awareness publication, I’ve written a health column for the Southern Daily Echo and I’ve been appointed team nutritionist by my local professional football club, AFC Bournemouth.”
 
Nutrichef is a member of the Dorset Business chamber of commerce and industry.

Dorset Business chief executive Peter Scott said: “Barbara’s entry clearly shone through. It not only met all the criteria but went above and beyond the expectations of the judges.”

Nutrichef will now compete against entrepreneurs from all over the UK at the national Chamber Awards 2007. Winners will be announced on November 29 at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.