To many companies, it’s the department most unloved, neglected and left toiling away in the most distant corner of the office. But the customer services function at Bloom & Wild couldn’t be more different. It’s not even defined as providing a service – it’s called ‘Customer Delight’. And as Phill Burton, COO of the online

One of the tricks of investing in consumer brands is gauging where the prevailing winds are blowing and, most importantly for us, if they will build into a gale or peter out in 5 to 10 years’ time. Unpicking this is a fine mix of gut-inspired instinct based on 30+ years of working with brands,

Charlie Bigham, founder of his eponymous gourmet food brand, has revealed how a ‘painful correction’ during the 2007 financial crisis forced his business to sharply refocus its priorities. ‘Our stuff was just taken off the shelves because everybody panicked,’ says Bigham in the latest podcast from Piper’s second season of ‘How I Grew My Brand’

We are curious creatures here at Piper and, as part of this curiosity, we love hearing and learning from inspiring leaders. This is part of the reason for holding regular events at our offices bringing together entrepreneurs growing challenger brands – a couple of weeks ago, we hosted 20 entrepreneurs at our annual food and

The humble dog is no longer just man’s best friend – it has overtaken close family members in our affections, according to our latest survey, in association with pet lifestyle website PetsPyjamas. Piper currently has two leading natural pet food brands in its portfolio, Barking Heads and Forthglade. More than half (55%) the UK’s dog

Turtle Bay founder Ajith Jayawickrema, who moved to the UK from Sri Lanka at the age of 15, has revealed how singer Leona Lewis unknowingly inspired him to launch his highly successful Caribbean restaurant chain. ‘My girls were young and we were watching X Factor – and a girl called Leona Lewis won it,’ says

Do founders need a little more love? When do you know if you’ve backed the wrong horse? And how can you build the ‘IKEA of tights’? These were just some of the questions posed at Piper’s latest Founders’ Collective, a quarterly gathering of entrepreneurs each focused on a different consumer sector. Three speakers representing Piper’s

Alex Reilley tells us about how a ‘Game of Thrones’ approach to business, which involved defining ‘the Cause’, enabled him and his team to turn Loungers from a small café-bar chain into a hugely successful nationwide brand. ‘The biggest challenge was dealing with the scale,’ reveals Alex in the second of our ‘7, 17, 70’